The 3 Ânes (3 donkeys) – Locus, Asper and another Locus are three French experimental composers-improvisers-sound artists – Benjamin Bondonneau, Xavier Charles and Lionel Marchetti. On their first album, they play clarinets in open nature and push the ethereal timbres of these acoustic instruments with electronics to produce subtle and mysterious, noisy sounds.
Bondonneau is an audio-visual artist-educator and a co-founder of the Centre d’improvisation Libre. He recently recorded with Marchetti (and composer Jean-Yves Bosseur) Le Diable Ermite (released by Marchetti, 2021). Charles is a key figure on the free European music scene who has worked with the ONCEIM collective, Dans les arbres and The Ex and recorded with John Butcher and Otomo Yoshihide. Marchetti is a composer of musique concrète, audio-visual artist and improviser using microphones, loudspeakers and electronics, especially with fellow composer Jérôme Noetinger.
3 Ânes was inspired by Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson’s book Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1878) recounted humorously his hiking journey in the area of the Cévennes mountains in south-central France, accompanied by Modestine, a stubborn, manipulative donkey he could never quite master. Stevenson’s route became a popular one for hikers, sometimes with donkeys. Bondonneau, Charles and Marchetti quote from the book: «As for me, I travel not to go somewhere, but to walk. I travel for the pleasure of travelling. The important thing is to move, to experience more closely the necessities and embarrassments of life, to leave the cozy bed of civilization, to feel under my feet the earthly granite and the scattered ints with their sharps edges».
3 Ânes documents the hiking journey of Bondonneau, Charles and Marchetti in the natural region of Périgord, for a few summer days in the July heat, equipped with packages, instruments, active speakers, a synthesizer, cables and effect pedals, all on batteries for complete autonomy. They chose a few beautiful sites where they improvised in the open air, inspired by the sonic universes around them and letting the clarinets converse and meditate with the vibrating nature. Apparently, their accompanying mules were quiet most of the time and seemed to be attentive to the enigmatic music.
3 Ânes is an inspired homage to the «necessities and embarrassments of life» that stresses the liberating joy of being in and with nature, and a strange yet moving and commanding sonic experience.
Eyal Hareuveni
Benjamin Bondonneau (clarinet, electronics), Xavier Charles (clarinet, electronics), Lionel Marchetti (clarinet, electronics)
