Another Timbre TimHarrisonbre
“The quintet in question are Michel Doneda, (soprano sax) Rhodri Davies, (harp and preparations) Louisa Martin, (laptop) Phil Minton, (voice) and Lee Patterson (amplified objects). The recording is a forty-odd minute long live concert set beautifully captured in Leeds the night before the Midhopestones album recording was made. This release, for reasons I am unsure of, is named Fragment of the Cadastre. I really enjoyed Midhopestones, it was one of my favourites from last year, an example of a larger group that really worked well together, superbly balanced and able to create a sound that sounded wholly organic, one big seething mass of detailed delicate sounds rather than just the sum product of five musicians playing together. Fragment… is very much the same, layers of intricate sounds that combine together really well, with maybe fifty percent of what we hear unattributable to a particular musician. The music shifts slowly through sections that vary in volume and density, slipping into near silence at its quietest, making the speakers really work at its busiest. Although all of the sounds slip over each other with apparent ease the music does not feel like a drone. It changes too much, too often, and on occasions it really surprises. After a very gradual opening period in which assorted textures and colours are allowed to mass together, Minton suddenly comes to the fore, having remained very subtle with his vocalisations until now. There is a sudden burst of inhuman crackles and gurgles from him that shows up as a spike above the undulating swarms below, and this triggers the first of several periods of furtive activity. An obvious analogy, particularly with Lee Patterson involved, but I am reminded of a saucepan of water on the stove, starting with the surface only broken by the occasional bubble hitting the surface, and slowly building until suddenly things seem to accelerate very fast and the pan boils over into a mass of foam running everywhere.
If this structure to the music sounds very simple well, I guess it is. In many ways this recording is of archetypal modern electroacoustic improvisation, no great challenge to the listener, but it is simply very beautiful in its details, its layers of filigree gauze lit from below sliding over each other. In my review of the Midhopestones album proper I said that sometimes sheer beauty is enough, we don’t always need to be made to rethink everything and anything when we sit and listen to. My opinion hasn’t changed having listened to this additional recording. Wonderful music.” Richard Pinnell, The Watchful Ear
“Les musiques improvisées ont pour habitude de suivre leurs propres chemins, pas toujours bien balisés et rarement conciliables avec l’idée de frontière. Ce n’est donc pas une tentative de cartographie à laquelle se livre ce Fragment of the Cadastre qui n’entend pas circonscrire de territoire mais plutôt laisser un témoignage de son passage et surtout d’une rencontre. Et pas n’importe laquelle puisqu’il s’agit de la toute première entre Michel Doneda (saxophone soprano) et quatre improvisateurs/artistes sonores britanniques : Rhodri Davies (harpe et préparations), Louisa Martin (ordinateur), Phil Minton (voix) et Lee Patterson (objets amplifiés). Capturée en une prise de 43 minutes à Leeds le 9 janvier 2009, cette session précède d’un jour celle que le groupe enregistra pour l’album Midhopestones, paru l’année dernière chez Another Timbre. Les deux disques sont à l’évidence complémentaires, à l’instar des interventions sonores de chaque musicien qui trouvent naturellement leur place et semblent se placer spontanément sur un mode d’interaction consensuel. Respirations, résonances, bruissements s’agencent avec délicatesse, comme un paysage matinal où la lumière est rasante et la rosée perle à chaque feuille. On croirait entendre le déploiement de pétales, la pousse de l’herbe dans un jardin (à l’anglaise évidemment, où la nature est présentée sous son aspect sauvage mais toujours domestiqué). Les expirations agonisantes et autres râles de Minton apportent une touche animale à l’ensemble parsemé de vents contraires, de coulées sableuses, d’échos sombres et de discrets coléoptères que l’on parvient toujours à rattacher à leur source. Le climat change progressivement, devient crépusculaire puis franchement nocturne mais toujours riche en détails et micro-événements. Un excellent disque où la personnalité de chacun des improvisateurs se manifeste sans jamais prendre les devants et où l’imaginaire est constamment sollicité. Attention : l’édition est limitée à 150 exemplaires donc il serait temps d’agir maintenant pour pouvoir en profiter !” Jean-Claude Gevrey, scala tympani
“Captured in Leeds the evening before the recording of the cd Midhopestones (by the same musicians for the same label), this precious edition - limited to 150 copies - records the first meeting of a fascinating quintet. From the very first moments there begins to unfurl a long, interwoven and vibrant nocturnal poetry.... A sumptuous, dream-like music, controlled, inhabited, and with space to breathe.” Guillaume Tarche, Le Son du Grisli
out of catalogue fragment of the cadastre
Rhodri Davies harp & preparations
Michel Doneda soprano saxophone
Louisa Martin laptop
Phil Minton voice
Lee Patterson amplified objects
recorded in concert in Leeds, January 2009, TT: 43:01
This limited edition cdr was released in july 2010 to celebrate 3 years of label activity.
All the label’s copies have sold out, but a lossless file of the performance is available on request for £6. If you are interested, email info@anothertimbre.com and we’ll send you a copy.
