Sax player Christine Abdelnour and guitarist Andy Moor (of The Ex fame) are known as adventurous improvisers with idiosyncratic voices in the European experimental, free improvised scene. improvisation. On the album Unprotected Sleep they have explored the notion of hypnagogia – the transition state between wakefulness and sleep in which it is common to experience visual, audio, or other types of hallucinations.

Abdelnour and Moor wanted to drive their creative, free improvised process while delving into their own personal experience and memories. The album was recorded during the Musique Action Festival in Vandeurvre in 2011 and more than ten years later, after a concert in Instants Chavirés in Montreuil in 2022.

Unprotected Sleep features Abdelnour and Moor diving into this out-of-phase state of mind when one feels vulnerable and fragile, but at the same time, the mind is very fluid and ultra-associative with an extraordinary memory. Abdelnour employs an array of extended breathing techniques while Moor’s electric guitar playing is sparse, suggestive and introspective.

They managed to create unpredictable dynamics that operate according to their own inner logic and move instantly between comforting and peaceful to urgent, unsettling and disturbing moods. Abdelnour and Moor reflect on their own memories and experiences with some irony in the pieces «80db Is Loud If Youre Snoring» and «Exchanging Oversize Chrome Objects». The last piece, «Cool Cruel And Everything In Between», captures best Abdelnour and Moor’s naked and imaginative dialogs with its real and hallucinated sounds coming from foggy, unprotected sleep.

Eyal Hareuveni 

Christine Abdelnour (as), Andy Moor (g)