Pierre Bastien live April 18, 2008

01 Téléconcerts – live (63:52)
02 Téléconcerts – live (encore) (14:38)
Total time: 78:29
Live recording, Nanterre, France, April 18, 2008

Pierre Bastien: trumpet, Mecanium, casiotone, tiny extra-european one-string violin
Alexei Aïgui: violin
Axel Lecourt: kalimba, mbira, sanza, kaskas, assorted brazilian instruments
Mitsuaki Matsumoto: laptop, live sampler, comb, ringing bowl
Pierrick Sorin: video

The music on this live recording is a rendition of ‘Téléconcerts’, a Pierre Bastien CD on french label Signature (Radio France), released 2006. The music is continuous, violinist Alexei Aigui providing many transitions from one rhythm to the next, helping the music move from one tonality to the next. Originally composed of separate tracks, ‘Téléconcerts’ worked perfectly as a suite. At times the music evolved into large exotic soundscapes, complete with african & brazilian instruments, the rhythm patterns evocative of large rivers like Niger or Amazonia. Thanks to Axel Lecourt’s amazing array of exotic instruments [+], more often than not during the concert, I was reminded of the brillant‘The Emerald Forest’ movie soundtrack by Junior Homrich and Brian Gascoigne. Alex Aïgui is the leader of Ensemble 4’33 [+], composing what was called ‘system music’ in the 1980s (on Crammed Discs, for instance). Important features in this music are Bastien’s muted piccolo trumpet and Aigui’s virtuoso violin, both instruments prone to mournful, lonely evocations – like the opening of the Encore (tr.#2), sounding like an empty ball-room after the guests have left the party. To see Bastien perform with a band is unusual – at least since he left the Bel Canto Orchestra in the late 1980s– but I can say it worked perfectly. With accompanying live video by Pierrick Sorin, a mix of hallucogenic kaleidoscopic colourful pictures with funny comedy scenes he had prepared beforehand.

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