November 2024
The Rossi Bar
We begin the evening with a stunning set from Marina Moore, her kit is all set up at floor level, definitely a looper, possibly a laptop and some effects. She definitely has visible her violin, from which she throws a trembling fluttering part into the looper, over this she plays an almost cello like deeper melodic line. A scuttling arpeggiating synth line swoops out from somewhere, a plucked motif, and then she drops out of sight to the floor and starts singing through a distorting mic and some interesting feeding back delay. There are two synth lines swirling around each other. Three. Some waves. Then she insouciantly tosses off some fiddle flourishes into the looper and gets back to the serious melodic violin lines. The synth arpeggios are punctuation, I see. The next piece starts with a slower mellow plucked violin loop, layered up a bit, slower deeper lines added then some more distorted singing. More and more layers of violin going in as she progresses through the song. This time the vocals get looped, the lead violin line quite low in the mix. A nice buzzing sees us out. The arpeggios lead us into the next song with a high long, long melodic loop and some impressively proper low end loops from the violin. The long loop has a counter melody that comes back in and out of time with it. Delay fun whirrs its way around everything quite satisfactorily. Its beautifully haunting. The next one starts with a lightly strummed loop, shorter loops are spun in and Marina’s voice is in a much higher register this time. The final song has a disturbing shifting slurred rhythmic part all nasty overtones and distress, over this a frenetic flurries of notes, and slow detuned strides, its overwrought & melodramatic redolent of mists and black and white denouements, a superfast drum machine kicks in quite unexpectedly, the arpeggios are back fast and distressing and the delay adds an edge of chaos and its done. Wow. Brilliant.
It’s a cracking start to a cracking evening, as it turns out.
Certainly, it was a tough set to follow, but fortunately we had Les Biologistes Marins up next. A duo, Beatrice on flute and electronics, Anton on synth and electronics. Starting with hums, blown flute – which is to say, the sound of blowing wind through the flute rather than the expected blown notes – sea-like unsurprisingly perhaps. As this builds in intensity, we get a foghorn, abstract noises, an indistinct pulse. Field recordings of waves. The pulse takes on a humming aspect, the foghorn becomes churchlike organ. Station bells. The distance offers chimes, train scrapes. And we get the first massive drone of sub bass. Alien radio signals static through the detuning organ tones. The organ parts settle into a drone, a pecked bass line and slurring upper part. They also sing, both of them Anton lost in a reverb-y distance meshing with Beatrice’s pure and tremulous wordless vocals in the foreground. The static takes on a squealing aspect and a synth-y shimmery metal scrape slips into view. We find ourselves with just the organ’s left hand without having noticed, and the flute is back, whistles and lingering notes. We hear a watery cave, waves slurping at its edges. The flute takes runs, the organ notes now slower and finally droning and gone into something slipperier. A thin drone takes us away from the flute deeper into the aquatic cave, rattles of metallic objects, a monk singing(?[!]), that static still going. Whistling. That male voice still lurking in the background. Beatrice’s voice warmer in the foreground still, unexpectedly and briefly reminding me of Low. Bea doubles up her voice with another deeper into the depths. Bottle clinks. More. Into layers. Clanks even. Marker buoys tolling in the cave mouth. A two note keyboard riff, reverb-y squelches. That static – still! Humming slides unobtrusively into flute, the two note riff is cuckooed on different sounds. The bass part expands to a 4 note arpeggio, with a strong flute part over it. The flute switches to a repeated much higher part reflecting the bassline, playing variations around it. Without doing much in the way of actually changing the sounds seems to get much bigger, clear of reverb out into the sunshine, a sudden increase in tempo until its all a flurry and done. A very different journey, but completely mesmerising.
And to see off the evening the dressing gowned Manu Louis in a robe, a borrowed fluffy of many colours. It’s kind of incongruous with my Vox guitar on its second outing of the year/decade wrapped around it. He’s got a couple of keyboards he plays Rick Wakeman style as well as the guitar and a laptop I think, I can’t quite see. The first song starts, a jerky new wavy rhythm, stopping starting, buzzing, Manu sings, there’s a nasty noise for a breakdown, with a guitar solo tossed off with a similar flourish to Marina’s violin playing earlier. I don’t think that kind of guitar solos ever been played on that guitar before. Second song (“Internet”) has a nice detuning synth riff reminiscent of Meronomy’s set for us. Manu sings this one in French. The sound of the synth constantly rotates, now boops, now squelches. Manu gets quite worked up. He also dances. Third starts with a jazzy drum part, a similar Casio-ish sound plays the riff. Third starts off fairly minimal, singing over drums and a light pad. Eventually a lately bass drops in. This one has a definite cabaret feel, probably the French lyrics again. The third song is “The Stream”, it has an interactive dance, Belgian dancing at that. A skipping bass drum and a count of four, then a buzzing arpeggio bassline and silly noises, very Yello. Interesting; my references are very 80s for this, but it sounds really modern. It has a really warped out middle 8 and some very nice grooves. The 4th song is “Documents” and is new, some very silly synth lines over a very serious backbeat, pumping bass and a glorious nasty buzz-saw whine. The final song also has an interactive dance, and starts with polka style stabs, and some excessively fierce guitar runs. Key changes! And a hint of the Shadows. After the first chorus the rhythm steps up a notch as does the guitar. Everything gets more intense. The second chorus and then a breakdown. Into a reedy jazz organ. More percussion into the mix. The third chorus to maximise the frenzy and end.
It’s “Documents” that fills my head as I head for the bus.