SoundOut 2024 / 6

I was mostly busy on Sunday but couldn't miss the first performance which was my final: two basses and guitar, Clayton Thomas, Helen Svoboda and Jean-Sebastian Mariage.  I've been mightily impressed and often intrigued by the playing of all these three over this festival.  They were in the smaller room, having starting early so they were playing when audience entered.  Lots of sustained floating drones, I thought around A given harmonics and open strings, contrasting harmonics harmonies, some interesting atonal melody note plays from Clayton and Jean-Sebastian, bowing from all including guitar, and some bass pizz and an end on a relative quietude and high bass harmonics.  Quite a lovely engrossing performance, unusual with those dissonant pizz lines which are somewhat a revelation after the consistent harmonies of bass harmonics.  So an end for SoundOut 2024.  This one had more relevance and meaning for me, perhaps because I got to perform, somewhat because the act of performance and preparation taught something of the approach and style.  I also better understood the nature of experimental vs free jazz.  And there were some really impressive musicians.  I will single out some favourites but this is not exhaustive and just from those I heard: Clayton Thomas, Helen Svoboda, Novak Milojlovic, Guylaine Cosseron, Maria Moles, Jean-Sebastian Mariage, Laurence Pike but, as I said, a personal list.  Congrats to all and especially to Richard Johnson who brought together the 15th instance of this fascinating, challenging and unusual gathering.  Given our political bent from Clayton, I'll add a few relevant pics from the Lyneham Shops.

Clayton Thomas (bass), Helen Svoboda (bass) and Jean-Sebastian Mariage (guitar) performed my final concert at SoundOut 2024.

SoundOut 2024 / 2

There were three more acts during the SoundOut Friday night session.  First was a very quirky outing with three performers playing occasional trumpet and flute but mostly various kids' toys.  All rattles and noises and shakers and whistles.  Backing this was a multimedia-cum-live drawing session projected behind.   The falling conga line of penguins was perhaps the peak of this experience, but an artistically quirky good time was had by all, performers and audience.  BTW, the mini amps were Marshall and Orange, although the sound was nothing like dirty rock.  Amusing.  performers were Elizabeth Jigallin, Ellen Kirkwood, Jodie Rottle and Nicci Haynes.  Then Kairos, another French international duo, this time combining electronics and oft-times nicely dirty Les Paul guitar.  Dotty punchy synth lines from a table of keyboards and one particularly strange controller, bowed guitar, some seriously nice phrasings, impressive sounds although I wondered where it was going or went.  Performers were Jean-Sebastian Mariage and Gwennaëlle Roulleau.  Then the final act, a quartet called Believe.  This was straight free jazz, fabulously articulate and expressive and informed with top skills, madly busy from the first notes but moving through a series of sections.  The performers were Clayton Thomas, Laurence Pike, Novak Manojkovic and Peter Farrer.  All great musos, but I have to single out Novak.  He's a pianist and piano is the whole orchestra in a box, but he could play it all.  I was blown out, by him and all.  And I don't always warm to free jazz.  It needs informed chops and some structure and immense listening and a love of dissonance, but then it can be exhilarating.  This was.

The quirky penguins outing was Elizabeth Jigallin (toys), Ellen Kirkwood (toys sometimes trumpet), Jodie Rottle (toys sometimes flute, piccolo) and Nicci Haynes (drawings, projections).  Kairos comprised  Jean-Sebastian Mariage (guitar) and Gwennaëlle Roulleau (electronics).  Believe comprised Clayton Thomas (bass), Laurence Pike (drums), Novak Manojkovic (piano) and Peter Farrer (alto, percussion).