Violaine Gestadler is a French sax player, improviser and educator. She began her collaboration with fellow French double bass player Louis-Michel Marion in the free improvising trio Noi trei, with audio-visual artist Stefania Becheanu, who released the album 3 Vues D’un Paysage = 3 Views Of A Landscape (Creative Sources, 2018). Marges is her second album with Marion, recorded at studio CCAM – Scène Nationale de Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy in March 2020.
There is a quite of French writer Pascal Quignard from his poetic book L’Origine de la danse (2013). And, indeed, the five improvisations suggest some kind of free-form and spontaneous dances (and Marion took part in many choreographic productions) where Gestadler and Marion develop minimalist and loose sonic architectures and keep deconstructing and reconstructing them. They do so by employing patiently and methodically their extended breathing, bowing and vocal techniques until their instruments transform into abstract and otherworldly sound generators. Their conversational, quiet and thoughtful interplay often juggles with suggestive overtones, noisy breaths and ritualist pulses, and manages to keep the creative tension throughout the five, reserved improvisations.
木工 Mokkō (carpentry in Chinese) is Marion’s duo with fellow French accordionist Emilie Škrijelj, who plays in Marion’s Azéotropes company known for her many projects with Belgian drummer Tom Malmendier and the collaborations with Fred Frith, Mike Ladd, Michael Thieke and Christine Abdelnour. The album was recorded at La Menuiserie in Mancieulles in May 2018 and released by Marion. This album also features a text by French writer, Franck Doyen who wrote about «trees» and «remains of landscapes and light» that «return slowly and everywhere to the wild state, abandoned harvests» (from La Lettre volée, 2016).
True to its title, this album stressors the dark and woody sound of the bowed double bass, with its infinite, resonant overtones that never cease to fill the space. Škrijelj contrasts and balances Marion’s stubborn arco work, with his extended bowing and percussive techniques, with lighter and softer streams of air and together they sketch poetic and vibrant, intriguing textures. On the last piece «Mo part 2» you can even trace echoes of folk melodies. A highly immersive listening experience.
Eyal Hareuveni
Violaine Gestadler (saxophones), Louis-Michel Marion (double bass), Emilie Škrijelj (accordion)
