Cd "Couleurs Chimériques"

Pierce Warnecke - Rodolphe Loubatière

Self Release

As often told before, running a blog like this can become a source of frustration and regret, both caused by the lethal combination “perennial lack of time/squandered time for useless releases/meriting records remaining concealed somewhere in a box amidst thousands of equally overlooked items”. Based on this, receiving a meaningful signal from hitherto unknown artists causes a rare burst of enthusiasm in this reviewer, if only for having heard something gripping that requires to be spread around a little bit. Such is the case of percussionist Rodolphe Loubatière (here exclusively employing a snare drum) and laptop/electronics manager Pierce Warnecke, Couleurs Chimériques being their second album as an improvising couple.

The first adjective that comes to mind as I’m listening to these tracks is “animate”. When a genuine intention of exploring exists, no instrumental limitation can prevent anyone from extracting bewitching matters from a reduced palette. Loubatière seems capable of bringing out every possible nuance from the drum, aided by a brilliant work of decomposition and demineralization by Warnecke. Quite intelligently, each track changes the scenario completely from the preceding one. Becoming acquainted with a resonant drone only to get confused by a series of unremorseful squeaks and squeals shortly thereafter; believing in a temporary quietness just to find the duo assaulting our ears with all sorts of intrinsic micro-explosions, bizarre anti-rhythms and submerged utterances. This goes on throughout the program, the listener never allowed to predict anything, merely perceiving the moment (as fractured, crumbled and short-waved as it may be) and enjoying an awful lot of exciting dynamic subtleties.

This is a typical example of sonic investigation imbued with honesty and adventurousness in proportionate doses. Its sharp vibrancy stimulates for the entire duration, no weak points whatsoever. The picture that lingers on is that of an inexhaustible flame that no evil wind will be able to extinguish; it’s the fire of earnest creativity. Let’s wait for the next moves by these nice guys.

Massimo Ricci - Touching Extremes

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 ......Avec un instrumentarium de la même famille, percussion et électronique, mais un effectif réduit au minimum puisqu’il ne s’agit que d’un duo, Rodolphe Loubatière (avec juste une caisse claire) et Pierce Warnecke (électronique) vont dans une direction toute autre, ou plutôt restent dans leurs contrées : c’est de la musique improvisée telle qu’on l’imagine et la connaît depuis des années, jouée avec talent et avec une évidente communion et connexion entre les deux musiciens, mais qui se contente de vignettes sonores – pas vraiment de développement, pas de structure en train de se faire, mais des alliages sonores pertinents, des variations de couleurs, comme le suggère d’ailleurs le titre du disque, Couleurs Chimériques. Ce qui fait le lien entre les différentes pièces ou les différents moments, c’est sans doute, justement, la frugalité des moyens mis en œuvre.

Kasper T. Toeplitz – (revue et corrigé)