Pauvros/Foussat/Sato/Lazro

Putting a finer point on their improvisational stance, the members of France’s Marteau Rouge reunited after a nine-year gap and extended the group equation by adding the distinctive tone of tenor saxophonist Daunik Lazro.Lazro, a French Free Jazz pioneer, who has recorded with everyone from Joëlle Léandre to Joe McPhee as well as individual Marteau Rouge players, amplifies the interaction with characteristic reed extensions ranging from the febrile to the fixed.

Meanwhile drummer Makoto Sato, who has also worked with Alan Silva, maintains a linear pulse with harmonious cymbal clanks and drum pops. Jean-François Pauvros modifies his guitar strokes midway between Metal and meditative; while synthesizer sound shaper Jean-Marc Foussat, who. like Pauvros, has played with the likes of Evan Parker, underlines the unfolding expositions with wave form sweeps and oscillated washes. Additionally he and the guitarist project a variety of clenched throat mumbles and yelps at opportune moments.

Drum rolls and knells, synthesizer throbs and guitar ringing and frails judder against, underline or supplement the emotional projections which make up Lazro’s coordinated outflow. At points reedy sounds are expressed with snorty doits, reed sucking and broken chord altissimo patches. Elsewhere Lazro’s tone is breathy and subtle. He also surprises midway by briefly quoting “The End of a Love Affair” and further on slides into a contrafact that may be “Lonely Woman”. Each of these shifts is appropriately bolstered by sympathetic oscillations or tough, trembling waves forms from Foussat’s equipment.

Eventually Lazro’s presto reed squeaks, Pauvros’ echoing Jew’s harp like twangs, Sato’s rolling drum thumps and Foussat’s synthesizer shakes blend into a timbral pattern. That means a responsive  group definition is attained and then individualized with a coda of ascending guitar flanges and descending percussion pops.

Marteau Rouge Plus One has created a distinctive swan song. Let us hope that there’s potential for a resurrection.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Après la Pluie 2. Sous la Lune  3. Visages 4. The End of a Love Affair  5.des Abîmes 6. Viens 7. Le Beau Temps

Personnel: Daunik Lazro (tenor saxophone); Jean-François Pauvros (guitar and voice); Jean-Marc Foussat (AKS synthesizer and voice) and Makoto Sato (drums)