Tatouages miroir

After Evan Parker, Xavier Charles, John Butcher and Ingrid Laubrock, the bassist Éric Normand – great manitou of the Rimouski label Tour de bras, among other things – has recruited the Lyon saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet, known in particular for his participation in the free-improvisation quintet Hubbub, to lead his Grand Groupe Régional d’Improvisation Libérée, a formation of variable numbers and geometry set up by Normand, through one of his compositions. Of course, this group gives pride of place to improvisation. By his own admission, Guionnet has found in the GGRIL an orchestra made up of musicians with atypical backgrounds, privileged partners for research and experimentation. In their company, he pushes his explorations of form as far as possible, and the result is quite fascinating, with just the right amount of tension and suspension points to bring out the various instruments. The start is slow, there are many silences. The music, scattered, almost whispered at times, unfolds without any rush. Mysterious atmospheres, parsimonious dissonances, with sometimes sound bursts where the volume and energy level rise a little. Among the 11 musicians in the studio is the unfortunate Rémy Bélanger de Beauport, one of the five victims of the sinister perpetrator of the sword attacks in Quebec City on October 31, and who almost lost an index finger in the incident. A recording that deserves to be tamed into revealing its secrets.