Iguan is the French free improvising duo of vocal artist Claire Trouilloud and live electronics player Yérri-Gaspar Hummel. «Heaven’s Door» is the debut album of Iguan and offers music that blends sound poetry and concrete music with intuitive and spontaneous energy, nourished by the past performances of the duo, including at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Arts in Strasbourg, at Pilsen, the European cultural capital, as well as in numerous art galleries.

Like the mysterious reptile, Iguan suggests dark and enigmatic soundscapes. Trouilloud acts like a modern-day shaman and her soprano operatic vocals – live, with all her extended techniques, and processed ones, and when she vocalizes abstract wordless sounds or when she actually sings poetic texts – can be seductive and tortuous, often at the same time, as a choir sirens that are attractive and frightening. Hummel adds subtle and suggestive layers of vintage and atmospheric electronic drones (especially on «Heaven’s Door VII»), fragmented and resonating rhythmic patterns, raw noises but also brief melodic ideas, in a way that expands the depth and volume of the sonic interactions. The last two live pieces, «Live Stimultania 1 & 2» capture best the unique dynamics of Trouilloudand and Hummel. Urgent, inventive and sounding like transmissions from another, friendly planet.

The minimalist and hypnotic soundscapes of Iguan have an accumulative effect of irreverent and untimely ritual, even unworldly ritual, sometimes magnificent and at other times unsettling, just like iguanas can be.

Eyal Hareuveni

Claire Trouilloud (v), Yérri-Gaspar Hummel (live-elec)