Jean-Jacques Duerinckx / Adrian Northover

Cabaret Rocher

La Marche des Lucioles

CMT 266018

Sound essays in dual reed performances, these mixtures not only demonstrate dramatic comingling of timbres from either the clarinet or saxophone family, but also confirm the undeniable timbral adaptation of each duo. So while British soprano/alto saxophonist Adrian Northover and Belgian sopranino saxophonist Jean-Jacques Duerinckx are fully committed to probing the atonal limits of their horns, textures advanced by the multiple clarinets played by Brittany-based Étienne Cabaret and Christophe Rocher still retain a lyrical base.

During La Marche des Lucioles’ 11 selections, Rocher, the artistic director of the Nautilis Ensemble and Cabaret, who moves among Jazz, Rock, improv and traditional music, highlights and blends each of these genres. For Northover, who is part of the Remote Viewers and Duerinickx, who has worked with Peter Jacquemyn and others, free musical expression is paramount.

Adding harbor noises such as tugboat honks, typewriter pings, bell ringing, dialogue snatches and seagull cries to their sound elaborations the firefly walks created by the French clarinetists sparingly turn to these onomatopoeic signals to underscore their trills, tongue slaps and puffing continuum. Not really program music, the CD still bring out sonic inflections of the geographical strands that consciously or not contribute to the soundtrack of port cities. Tunes like “Booked Euro’ and others offer Klezmer-like mid-range reverberations that swirl into tremolo bagpipe shrills from the Breton clarinet as the other horn creates a bonding ostinato. Meanwhile similar piping trills are paramount on a track like “Tekez”, where the jumping melody performed in double counterpoint could be a sailor’s hornpipe. Moving into sophisticated tropes, the two create sequences which flow like calm waters (“Money, ‘Maez’”) or splinter into power variations with clarion register whines and a chalumeau bottom on “Tea Time Couple” Putting aside nephritic slurps and gurgling trill exhibited throughout for a thematic summation on the final “Forest is Burning”, Cabaret and Rocher undulate to a smooth finale, intersecting growled drones, simple clarion tones and distant aviary chirps.

The multiphonics, irregular vibrations and extended techniques sparingly sampled on La Marche des Lucioles make up Hearoglyphics’ whole meal, with each of the 13 tracks titled by an interpretation of a pseudo-hieroglyphic symbol. However the improvisations don’t describe each term, but serve as markers for this pre-Brexit collaboration. While the music conservatory-like collection of extended techniques are duly illustrated, the program isn’t combative, but in the spirit of pre-Boris Johnson cooperation. Defining the paradigm starts from “(Bird)”, with contrapuntal movement circling through eviscerated split tones from the sopranino and melodic hints from the breathy soprano. From that point on harmony and dissonance are given equal prominence as the dual improvisations slim or widen or move through a sequences of both. Metallic reed trills are narrowed into shaking squawks that brush up against mellifluous whorls and curlicue reed expansions that touch on speed as well as forward motion on tracks like “(Ox)”. Others like “(Hand)” make a statement in double counterpoint from pure air pushed through body tubes with complementary key percussion. Emphasized irregular glissandi that join altissimo and clarion tones, as on “(Man)” illustrate comprehensive reed and thematic motifs as succinctly and effectively as the strident watery exposition on “(God)” does so with near-inaudible shrieks and barely-there breaths forced through the body tube. The sequences are as non-linear as they are non-programmatic. That means that bagpipe-like intermittent tempo emphasis is given the same weight as reed tones expositions that flow into elevated unison narratives; and that double and triple tongue slaps and stops are as generic to the definition of the session as gradually coalescing honks and staccato clicks.

Designed for those who can accept programs without a side order of carefully defined narration, reed challenges and cooperation can be appreciated on both CDs.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Marche: 1. Nigbo 2. Marfa 3. Boked Eured 4. Wuhan 5. Tekez 6. Money, ‘Maez’ 7. Synthesthésie 8. Modène. 9. Tea Time Couple 10. ‘Kreiz ar C’hoajoù 11. Forest is Burning

Personnel: Marche: Étienne Cabaret (clarinet, bass and Turkish clarinets and traditional Breton clarinet) and Christophe Rocher (clarinet, petit and bass clarinet, bird whistle)

Track Listing: Hearoglyphics: 1. (Bird) 2, (Sheep) 3. (Ox) 4. (To Go) 5. (Hand) 6. (Man) 7. (Dagger) 8. (Fish) 9. (Reed) 10. Reed) 11. (Corn) 12. (God) 13 (Star)

Hearoglyphics: Jean-Jacques Duerinckx (sopranino saxophone) and Adrian Northover (soprano and alto saxophones)