Reviews that mention Christine Abdelnour
December 29, 2019
Christine Abdelnour/Louis Schild
La Louve
Wide Ear WER 041
Alexandra Grimal/Joëlle Léandre
Désordre
Montagne Noire MN1
Stripped down to essentials, these saxophone-double bass duos explore the variety of sounds that can be creatively sourced from the two instruments. But while there may be physical similarities each chooses a unique improvisational path.
French alto saxophonist Christine Abdelnour and Swiss electric bassist Louis Schild transform their instruments into non-specific sound sources, dedicating La Louve’s single track to a knowing analysis of timbres and dissonance. Meantime Désordre comes across like more of play-party activity or perhaps a Gallic version of Inuit throat singing. Bassist Joëlle Léandre and tenor saxophonist Alexandra Grimal, both French, have 15 tracks in which to challenge and compel on another with distinct creations. Considering the two also try out a bit of serious-and-non serious vocalizing, mostly without words, on a few of the 15 tracks, a sense of merriment also distinguishes this session from other discs that are overtly serious. MORE
December 1, 2019
Wels, Austria
Nov. 8, 9, 10, 2019
By Ken Waxman
Performance photos by Susan O’Connor
Treading the fine line among genres– or perhaps jumping from one to another – the sounds presented at Music Unlimited (MU) 33 touched on pure improv, hard noise, semi-notated patterns plus electro-acoustic and near-Rock forays. Still, every performer’s musical emphasis was on originality and discovery. That’s why some sets initiated by MU’s three curators – German pianist Magda Mayas, American tenor saxophonist Joe McPhee and Japanese guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi – during this annual festival in this Austrian city of 60,000 near Linz, featured some already constituted bands. Others were the equivalent of musical blind dates, with unanticipated sonic interactions adding up to memorable discoveries. MORE
January 16, 2013
Myriad
Unsounds 30U
Christine Abdelnour/Bonnie Jones/Andrea Neumann
As: Is
Olof Bright OBCD 35
An important early 1960s disc by alto saxophonist Jackie McLean is called One Step Beyond, and when it comes to 21st Century saxophone sounds, Paris-based alto saxophonist Christine Abdelnour is involved with taking that proverbial step. Although she plays the same instrument as McLean, her reed experimentation as nothing to do with the Freebop practiced by McLean and others in the last century. Instead, as these absorbing CDs attest, her saxophone is a means to an end as a method of sound projection. Accepting as given the microtonalism and extended techniques practiced by reedists like Bertrand Gauguet and John Butcher, she improvises in an idiosyncratic manner which is more about tone synthesis then virtuosity. MORE
January 16, 2013
Christine Abdelnour/Bonnie Jones/Andrea Neumann
As: Is
Olof Bright OBCD 35
Mayas + Abdelnour
Myriad
Unsounds 30U
An important early 1960s disc by alto saxophonist Jackie McLean is called One Step Beyond, and when it comes to 21st Century saxophone sounds, Paris-based alto saxophonist Christine Abdelnour is involved with taking that proverbial step. Although she plays the same instrument as McLean, her reed experimentation as nothing to do with the Freebop practiced by McLean and others in the last century. Instead, as these absorbing CDs attest, her saxophone is a means to an end as a method of sound projection. Accepting as given the microtonalism and extended techniques practiced by reedists like Bertrand Gauguet and John Butcher, she improvises in an idiosyncratic manner which is more about tone synthesis then virtuosity. MORE
June 5, 2012
Potlatch Records
By Ken Waxman
Performing music’s loss is recorded music’s gain since Paris-based Jacques Oger abandoned his gig as a saxophonist with the free music trio Axolotl in the mid-1980s. Turning to market research, communication and translations, by 1997 he had saved enough to found Potlatch which to date has released 35 high-quality CDs. Oger spent 10 years with Axolotl, during which the band recorded two LPs and gigged frequently. He stopped playing, he admits “because I thought I was not creative enough to keep on in that area of music.” He was creative enough though when he translated his love for experimental music into a record label. MORE
October 10, 2011
Météo Music Festival August 23 to August 27 2011
By Ken Waxman
Météo means weather in French, and one notable aspect of this year’s Météo Music Festival which takes place in Mulhouse, France, was the weather. It’s a testament to the high quality of the creative music there that audiences throughout the five days were without exception quiet and attentive despite temperatures in non air-conditioned concert spaces that hovered around the high 90sF. More dramatically, one afternoon a sudden freak thunderstorm created an unexpected crescendo to a hushed, spatial performance, by the Greek-Welsh Cranc trio of cellist Nikos Veliotis, harpist Rhodri Davies and violinist Angharad Davies, when winds violently blew ajar the immense wooden front door of Friche DMC, a former thread factory, causing glass to shatter and fall nosily. MORE
August 7, 2010
Magda Mayas/Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour
Teeming
OlofBright OBCD 28
Pascal Battus/Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour
Ichnites
Potlatch P110
Probing the furthest reaches of saxophone texture and timbre has been the preoccupation of altoist Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour’s improvising during the past few years. Recorded within a month of one another, Teeming and Ichnites capture two significant performances by the Paris-based reedist.
Together they’re notable sonically and sociologically. Sonically the atonal fragmentation of breath, reed and metal in which she specializes is presented in different duo contexts. All-acoustic, Teeming teams Abdelnour with Berlin-based prepared piano explorer Magda Mayas. On the other CD, her partner is Paris’ Pascal Battus who uses motorized components from old walkmans as exciters, vibrators and resonators on cymbals and objects made of, among other substances, plastic, paper and cardboard. Sociologically, Abdelnour who is of Lebanese background, and who in the past has mainly played and recorded with improvisers on the Beirut-Paris axis, here establishes her own style with new partners, who while equally non-traditional in their playing, share similar creative DNA with her. MORE
August 7, 2010
Pascal Battus/Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour
Ichnites
Potlatch P110
Magda Mayas/Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour
Teeming
OlofBright OBCD 28
Probing the furthest reaches of saxophone texture and timbre has been the preoccupation of altoist Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour’s improvising during the past few years. Recorded within a month of one another, Teeming and Ichnites capture two significant performances by the Paris-based reedist.
Together they’re notable sonically and sociologically. Sonically the atonal fragmentation of breath, reed and metal in which she specializes is presented in different duo contexts. All-acoustic, Teeming teams Abdelnour with Berlin-based prepared piano explorer Magda Mayas. On the other CD, her partner is Paris’ Pascal Battus who uses motorized components from old walkmans as exciters, vibrators and resonators on cymbals and objects made of, among other substances, plastic, paper and cardboard. Sociologically, Abdelnour who is of Lebanese background, and who in the past has mainly played and recorded with improvisers on the Beirut-Paris axis, here establishes her own style with new partners, who while equally non-traditional in their playing, share similar creative DNA with her. MORE
June 23, 2009
Lawrence Casserley-Jeffrey Morgan
Room 2 Room
Konnex KCD 5213
Christine Sehnaoui/Michel Waisvisz
Short Wave
Al Maslakh CD 08
As the sonic interaction of acoustic and electronics instruments in improv shifts from the province of novelty to that of an everyday occurrence, focusing on the strategies used for coherence is more instructive than enumerating sound sources.
So it is with these notable CDs, recorded about six months apart by duos from different backgrounds. Interestingly enough the two slightly younger performers – Lebanese-French alto saxophonist Christine Sehnaoui and “The Hands” manipulator Michel Waisvisz, of the Netherlands – blend and jumble pulses to such an extent that it’s often difficult to tell which instrument creates which sound. Furthermore neither player is much concerned with capturing a pure timbre. With Room 2 Room on the other hand, there’s never any question that American-born, Köln-resident Jeffrey Morgan is playing tenor and soprano saxophones, while the signal processing created by British electro-acoustician Lawrence Casserley demarcates itself. MORE
June 23, 2009
Christine Sehnaoui/Michel Waisvisz
Short Wave
Al Maslakh CD 08
Lawrence Casserley-Jeffrey Morgan
Room 2 Room
Konnex KCD 5213
As the sonic interaction of acoustic and electronics instruments in improv shifts from the province of novelty to that of an everyday occurrence, focusing on the strategies used for coherence is more instructive than enumerating sound sources.
So it is with these notable CDs, recorded about six months apart by duos from different backgrounds. Interestingly enough the two slightly younger performers – Lebanese-French alto saxophonist Christine Sehnaoui and “The Hands” manipulator Michel Waisvisz, of the Netherlands – blend and jumble pulses to such an extent that it’s often difficult to tell which instrument creates which sound. Furthermore neither player is much concerned with capturing a pure timbre. With Room 2 Room on the other hand, there’s never any question that American-born, Köln-resident Jeffrey Morgan is playing tenor and soprano saxophones, while the signal processing created by British electro-acoustician Lawrence Casserley demarcates itself. MORE
February 19, 2008
Studio One
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 07
MAWJA
“Live One”
Chloë 008
Various Artists
Beirut-Ystad
Olof Bright Editions OBCD 16-17
Tom Chant/Sharif Sehnaoui
Cloister
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 05
Despite the political instability and sectarian violence that continues to disrupt the country, improbably enough the nascent Lebanese Free Music movement seems to progress from strength to strength.
Not only does Beirut’s annual festival of improvised music attract major Free Music stylists from overseas, but Lebanese improvisers are starting to travel and make an impression elsewhere. This situation is reflected in this set of impressive CDs. Just as importantly, it also confirms the universality of improvisation. Reductionist and electro-acoustic, the results heard from the locals are no more stereotypical Middle Eastern than others’ improvisations reflect Continental Europe or the United States. MORE
February 19, 2008
“Live One”
Chloë 008
MAWJA
Studio One
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 07
Various Artists
Beirut-Ystad
Olof Bright Editions OBCD 16-17
Tom Chant/Sharif Sehnaoui
Cloister
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 05
Despite the political instability and sectarian violence that continues to disrupt the country, improbably enough the nascent Lebanese Free Music movement seems to progress from strength to strength.
Not only does Beirut’s annual festival of improvised music attract major Free Music stylists from overseas, but Lebanese improvisers are starting to travel and make an impression elsewhere. This situation is reflected in this set of impressive CDs. Just as importantly, it also confirms the universality of improvisation. Reductionist and electro-acoustic, the results heard from the locals are no more stereotypical Middle Eastern than others’ improvisations reflect Continental Europe or the United States. MORE
February 19, 2008
Beirut-Ystad
Olof Bright Editions OBCD 16-17
MAWJA
Studio One
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 07
MAWJA
“Live One”
Chloë 008
Tom Chant/Sharif Sehnaoui
Cloister
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 05
Despite the political instability and sectarian violence that continues to disrupt the country, improbably enough the nascent Lebanese Free Music movement seems to progress from strength to strength.
Not only does Beirut’s annual festival of improvised music attract major Free Music stylists from overseas, but Lebanese improvisers are starting to travel and make an impression elsewhere. This situation is reflected in this set of impressive CDs. Just as importantly, it also confirms the universality of improvisation. Reductionist and electro-acoustic, the results heard from the locals are no more stereotypical Middle Eastern than others’ improvisations reflect Continental Europe or the United States. MORE
February 19, 2008
Cloister
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 05
MAWJA
Studio One
Al Maslakh Recordings MSLKH 07
MAWJA
“Live One”
Chloë 008
Various Artists
Beirut-Ystad
Olof Bright Editions OBCD 16-17
Despite the political instability and sectarian violence that continues to disrupt the country, improbably enough the nascent Lebanese Free Music movement seems to progress from strength to strength.
Not only does Beirut’s annual festival of improvised music attract major Free Music stylists from overseas, but Lebanese improvisers are starting to travel and make an impression elsewhere. This situation is reflected in this set of impressive CDs. Just as importantly, it also confirms the universality of improvisation. Reductionist and electro-acoustic, the results heard from the locals are no more stereotypical Middle Eastern than others’ improvisations reflect Continental Europe or the United States. MORE
September 18, 2005
Rouba3i5
Al Maslakh
Mazen Kerbaj and Franz Hautzinger
Abu Tarek
Creative Sources
Franz Hautzinger
Franz Hautzinger's Oriental Space
Artonal
By Ken Waxman
September 18, 2005
Unbeknownst to most, over the past few years Lebanese players have quietly put together the only improvised music scene in the Middle East outside of Israel. Known as the most sophisticated of Arab nations before the disastrous civil war of 1975 to1990 and despite recent political instability, Lebanon is still open to outside influences and that's how a small group of questing players first discovered Free Music a few years ago. MORE
September 7, 2005
Multiphonics in the Middle East
Taking stock of Lebanon’s Improv scene
From CODA Issue 323
By Ken Waxman
“I was born the same year of the Lebanese war, and I lived in it until its end and in fact I’m more and more convinced that there’s a close relation between it and my kind of playing today,” explains Beirut-based trumpeter Mazen Kerbaj, 30. “A lot of my passion for this music [Free Jazz] comes from my childhood, it reminds me unconsciously of the soundscapes of bombs and rifles that filled my ears during my childhood.”
War and bombs aside, the CD that so affected Kerbaj and his friends and introduced them to Free Jazz, was Peter Brötzmann’s Machine Gun, complete with its war-like cover. This initiation soon led to he and other like-minded players amassing as many Free Improv CDs as they could by the likes of Evan Parker and Charlie Haden. MORE