The French, Lille-based trio TOC – pianist Jérémie Ternoy, drummer Peter Orins (known from the quartet KAZE with pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura) and guitarist Ivann Cruz – likes to experiment with every new projects. This trio describes itself as a free hypnotic pop punk, post-rock, jazz-core unit. It already composed soundtrack to a wildlife documentary («Le Gorille», 2009), flirted with provocative dance patterns («You Can Dance If You Want», 2012) and with electronic sounds («Haircut», 2014) before switching to an all-acoustic format («Qeqertarsuatsiaat», 205, all on Circum Disc).
Now the trio takes its chances in the imagined faraway bayou and the meanders of the French Quarter of New Orleans, incorporating into its hot, steamy brew «unguaranteed quotes» of Jelly roll Morton and Kid Ory. TOC is augmented now with The compulsive Brass, among them trumpeter Christian Pruvost (who also plays in KAZE), turning its current incarnation into a septet.
The new, imagined New Orleans is a totally different sonic entity than the one immortalized in the music of Morton and Kid Ory. TOC & The Compulsive Brass sketch four dark, extended improvisations that briefly references the swinging rhythms of early jazz and ragtime. These slow-cooking improvisations, credited to all the seven musicians, offer dense walls of wild, tortured brass attacks, revolving around the twisted electric drones and propulsive-hypnotic pulse set by Ternoy Fender Rhodes, Orins drums and Cruz electric guitar. These improvisations patiently build the dramatic tension towards the inevitable, explosive climax that finally materializes on the third one «No Rag For K.» and the last, volatile «Kat Kid», suggesting similar urgent energy to those of Morton and Kid Ory, but eventually far away from any New Orleans familiar patterns.
Eyal Hareuveni
Jérémie Ternoy (Fender Rhodes, piano bass), Ivann Cruz (g), Peter Orins (dr), Christian Pruvost (tp), Sakina Abdou (as, ss), Jean-Baptiste Rubin (bs, ts), Maxime Morel (tuba, tb)
TOC and The Compulsive Brass (FR/CZ), live @ Alternativa 2015, Prague from Petr Vrba on Vimeo.