Loris Binot/Violaine Gestalder

Alexandra Grimal & Giovanni di Domenico
Shakkel
Relative Pitch Records RPR 1216

Two innovative French saxophonists singly hook up with associates employing keyboard extensions to stretch timbral boundaries during a series of intense improvisations. Besides leading her own groups, Paris-based tenor and soprano saxophonist Alexandra Grimal has worked with everyone from France’s ONJ to Micel Doneda. On Shakkel she matches wits with Italian Giovanni di Domenico’s piano, celesta and pipe organ. Meanwhile Nancy-based alto and saxophonist Violaine Gestalder, who has played with Louis Michel among others, brings her reeds and effects pedal to an eponymously titled duo with the prepared piano, magnetic bows and Kaoss Pad III of veteran Frech musician Loris Binot.

Interestingly enough both sessions follow a similar trajectory. Each includes one track of more than 20 minutes, with four briefer improvisations surrounding it. During Grimal’s and di Domenico’s case, two-thirds of the keyboards are brought into play on the shorter tracks. In response or affiliated with single clavier tropes ranging from low pitched piano pounding, mid-range clanks or reverberating celesta tinkles, in some cases the saxophonist uses her soprano to intensify delicacy with slightly nasal trills or unbroken octave smears. In others she projects breathy circular riffs from her tenor as well as inner body tube vibrations, assembling puffs and bites into a reflective exposition that intertwines with the pianist’s understated swing inferences, as both conclude with a distinctive joint timbral splash.

The elongated “sanmai” is another matter. Undulations from di Domenico’s pipe organ create an underlined drone which is gives the subsequent melody a faint ecclesiastical edge. Grimal’s honks, snarls and split tones challenge the keyboard motif with harsher and more dissident timbres that subvert the sectarian pulse into a thinner and more diverse sequence, adding the progressive to the  parochial. As celesta pings and piano clip are heard alongside organ swells choked reed notes blend with the dissolving ostinato and define the ongoing sound exploration with a defiant shrill reed squeak.

Reed squeaks and flat-line continuum is also on the menu of the other disc, especially since Gestalder can layer her contributions with an effects pedal, and Binot can extend and intensify his timbres with a real-time effects processor and sampler. Similar to the organ riffs on the other date, processed motifs create oscillations that often retain an aural after effect when the piece completes. Horizontal evolution is also preserved, both from electricity as well as strums from internal piano strings as on “Revenir et Fondre”. The duo’s melding strategy is obvious as the sampled textures increase in tempo as reed honks and split tone slurs arch over them while maintaining an ambulatory pace.

Additionally while many Gestalder’s expositions encompass metallic swells and thin altissimo screeches – probably intensified by the effects pedal – contrapuntal bow swipes and stopped piano keys, rhapsodic inferences remain. An interlude of dry reed timbres on “Une Extension” become more lyrical as they’re cushioned by programmed undulations and challenged by individual piano plinks.

Variations of these tropes are flung back and forth during the almost 24-minute “Perdre le Temps”. But rather than losing the time-feel various time signature and tempos are investigated from strident to smooth. Hunting-horn-like cries and spetrofluctuation stops from the saxophonist are used to modify the inflating mechanical whirr from the keyboardist’s electronics, whose vibrating texture also replicate woody piano pressure and a harpsichord’s plume-like strokes. During other sequences bullhorn-like reed blasts and tongue stops gradually dissolve into a horizontal duo merge as keyboard clanks and juddering voltage pressure equally become quieter.

Both duos frame their narratives with distinctive musical anecdotes and affiliations. Each individual program is worth investigating.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Shakkel: 1. komori 2. ishi no trail/request of the stone 3. kinden 4. sanmai 5. yorishiro

Personnel: Shakkel: Alexandra Grimal (tenor and soprano saxophones) and Giovanni di Domenico (piano, celesta and pipe organ)

Track Listing: Loris: 1. S’accorder 2. Une Extension 3. Perdre le Temps 4. Kaléidoscope 5. Revenir et Fondre

Personnel: Loris: Violaine Gestalder (alto and saxophones and effects pedals) and Loris Binot (prepared piano, magnetic bows  and Kaoss Pad III)