SPIRAL INPUTS
Sophie Agnel . piano
Bertrand Gauguet . amplified alto & soprano saxophones
Andrea Neumann . piano frame, electronic devices
Spiral #01 (18.12)
Spiral #02 (18.35)
Spiral #03 (09.36)
Spiral #04 (04.57)
Totaltime : 51.20
Another Timbre. AT39, 2011
Selected reviews
Un voyage introspectif et poétique qui conduit l’auditeur dans les abysses d’une créativité à la fois riche et minimaliste, aussi réduite que profonde. Quatre pièces électroacoustiques, oniriques, captivantes et envoûtantes. (Julien Heraud, improv-sphère)
Spiral Inputs possesses all the qualities of a masterpiece, becoming evident since the initial spin. It’s a wonderful wholeness, made of natural-sounding diversity, a resonant heterogeneity whose constituents make a responsive audience richer, willing to abandon a customarily passive role of mere receivers. The whole album deserves a plaque in the Hall Of Fame of the last decade’s best improvisation. (Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes)
So I could end this review with a list of superlatives, and declare this the best album I’ve heard since whenever, or just state that listening to it, listening with it, letting it swarm and flow around me, has been a thoroughly joyful experience after a thoroughly tedious day. If improvised music is your thing, if, like me, you revel in the way musicians listen to each other int he moment and respond accordingly, if, like me you enjoy a blend of acoustic and electronic sounds of varying texture and dynamic, then you will enjoy this album a great deal. (Richard Pinnell, thewatchfulear.com)
There is so much good music here, it is hard to really cover the moment-by-moment process of four long improvisations. I will say that if you want to hear some powerful freely improvised music in a less common combo (thanks to the prepared piano), you’ll fall in love with this album immediately. (Paul Banks, killedincars.com)
Ensuite alors, les insistances : une note à la gauche du clavier qu’Agnel se prend à harceler, des souffles en saxophones qui suivent des trajectoires brèves ou qui vocifèrent pour être sectionnés menus, une rumeur-acouphène qui, malgré sa discrétion, tient bon devant les pratiques tumultueuses ou les insinuations perçantes. A la fin, la tension dramatique retrouve même le chemin du rythme. (Guillaume Belhomme, Le Son du Grisli)
Det gör ju att detta trioalbum blivit så lyckat. Varje stycke masar sig långsamt framåt i kringgående rörelser mot ganska överraskande klangbilder, som får bli kulminerande upplösningar.
När jag låter Agnel-Gauguet-Neumann omsvärma mig är det inte obekvämt, tvärtom, ett klarare betraktande av klanger och småljud i ett friskt flöde har jag sällan hört. (Thomas Millroth, Sound of Music)
Their playing eschews conventional harmony, but thecomplementarity of the action is so harmonious that they establish a Platonic ideal of their own. (Bill Meyer, Dusted)
There is so much good music here, it is hard to really cover the moment-by-moment process of four long improvisations. I will say that if you want to hear some powerful freely improvised music in a less common combo (thanks to the prepared piano), you’ll fall in love with this album immediately. (http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/free+improv)
The best balance in their work is achieved in “Spiral #3”, a live recording no less carefully rendered than the two contemporaneous studio takes, but allowed to develop a little more freely in the apparently (surprisingly) less rarefied atmosphere of the Bibliothèque Centrale, Mulhouse. The most sublime moment of this richly rewarding album comes at the conclusion of this track, where the trio’s music attains a truly remarkable limpid beauty. (Tim Owen, The Jazz Man)
BERTRAND GAUGUET 