For almost a decade La Pieuvre have been engaged in conducted improvisation under the direction -“conduction”- ofOlivier Benoit. In the course of their various projects there has developed a unique working relationship between orchestraand conductor, an ever more refined gestural language allowing meticulously accurate intercommunication and theexploration of a richly varied sound-world – witness the pieces recorded on their first album, 1999-2005 (Helix LX001).
While La Pieuvre is creatively most at home with spontaneous composition, they are nonetheless open to working theresults of their experiments into pieces of a more predetermined form – the difference lying simply in the way time isconsidered. So the transition to “composing” becomes a shift of emphasis, not a fundamental change, to do with the alreadyvariable time-lag between two moments, that of conception and that of interpretation.
The play on time, in all senses of the word, can be seen on many levels in the origins and performance of the piece called”Ellipse”. Inspired by the work of the dancer choreographer and doctor David Flahaut, the work exploits the physicalcapacities of each player, his heartbeat, his breathing and his stamina.. The four movements not only unfold without a break,- the track numbers on the CD act merely as reference points for the listener – but employ a highly individual treatmentof time (and equally a unique sound-space, achieved, both in the studio and on stage, by careful placing of the instruments,according to their relative power, along the outline of a perfect ellipse.
The opening section, acting like an airlock, establishesthis new time-sense. A continuous wall of sound – electric and percussion instruments only – breaks on the ear,oppressive and unsettling, demanding unusual levels of attention.
Is this so very far from the experience Cage had in the anechoic chamber, which led him to his new concept of silence?Cut off from all external sound he was made aware of the sounds of his own body – the high register of his nervous system,the throb of his circulation and heartbeat.
And it is the heartbeat of each musician, the personal “counter” whose rate varies with exertion and the prolongedholding of the breath, that Benoit employs as the key to the second movement of his piece. The initial harmonic elements areremixed and displaced according to a rhythmic system based on varying ratios of sound to silence, all subject to theinstability of the pulse-counts. The third part of Ellipse develops this quasi-regularity – or rather this interweaving ofdifferent quasi-regularities – into a strictly metronomic activity where measured time, paradoxically through the agency ofpulse, breaks down into pure texture. Time, transformed, gives way to sound. Simultaneous cross-rhythms, emphasized bythe layout of the band, come to dominate the end of the movement. Each sub-group confronts the others in games ofopposition and attraction between slightly differing tempos, resulting in what could be called an intricate “multirhythm”.
The fourth and final movement rounds off the figure with a slow repetitive progression. Here auditory – and widersensory – perceptions become altered; the musician senses a realignment of what were his strengths and weaknesses,physical and technical; his pulse quickens in his heightened awareness; time seems to eddy and shift!.
What then does the ellipse signify? The word in French denotes not only a certain curve, but also a figure of syntax, English”ellipsis”, also “eclipsis”, where parts of a sentence are left out; thus a gap, a contraction, a short cut!
credits
released January 2, 2007
Olivier Benoit : conduction
David Bausseron : guitar
Nicolas Chachignot : drums
Bruno Cheynier : trombone
Claude Colpaert : trombone, gamelan
Pierre Cretel : double-bass
Ivann Cruz : guitar
Richard Cuvillier : cornet
Vincent Debaets : barytone saxophone
Martin Granger : synthesizer
Patrick Guionnet : voice
Martin Hackett : melodica
Franck Lambert : synthesizer
Philippe Lenglet : guitar
Stéphane Lévèque : bass
Yanik Miossec : clarinet
Peter Orins : drums
Michael Potier : saxhorn
Christian Pruvost : trumpet
Marie Richard : voice
Laurent Rigaut : alto saxophone
Antoine Rousseau : bass
Michel Stawicki : tenor saxophone
Guillaume Tarche : soprano saxophone
La Pieuvre - Ellipse
LX002
Produced by Le Crime
Recorded on October 6 - 8 2006 at Studio Ka (Faches Thumesnil - F) by Benjamin Mraz.
Mixed in May and June 2007 by Olivier Benoit and Benjamin Mraz (Studio Ka)
Mastering by Marwan Danoun / Marwan Manley Mastering.