The Possibility of a New Work for Aquaserge (Made to Measure Vol.46)

Album review

The Possibility of a New Work for Aquaserge is the French avant-prog band's contribution to Crammed's long-running composer series Made to Measure, which has typically focused on music that could be used for other forms of media, including film, television, advertising, and performances. Earlier entries in the series included John Lurie's soundtracks for Jim Jarmusch's breakthrough films, as well as Yasuaki Shimizu's Music for Commercials and albums by Hector Zazou, Fred Frith, Harold Budd, and many others. On this album, Aquaserge pay tribute to Giacinto Scelsi, György Ligeti, Edgard Varèse, and Morton Feldman, through a mixture of original homages and interpretations of the 20th century composers' pieces. The results are distinctly Aquasergian, with some of the pieces radically altered to match the band's sensibilities, while others are more reverential to the original compositions. Varèse's "Un grand sommeil noir" is transformed from a solemn, operatic piece into more of a fractured chanson, segueing from a cool yet fractured rhythm to more weightless sections, joined together by the dual lead vocals of Audrey Ginestet and Julien Gasc. "1768°C," an original piece dedicated to Varèse, is more exciting, particularly the mesmerizing section near the middle for electric guitar, woodwinds, and bass, as well as the main rhythm that the group constantly returns to. The band's homages to Scelsi and Ligeti are extended drones, the Scelsi piece is tense and at times shrill, while "Nuit terrestre (à Gyorgy Ligeti)" is soft and glacial, fusing the entire ensemble into what sounds like a single instrument. By contrast, the much shorter "Nuit altérée (à Gyorgy Ligeti)" sets the tense horns and bells to an almost New Orleans-style drum rhythm. The Feldman pieces include two versions of "Only," a solo voice composition based on a Rainer Maria Wilke poem, as well as the freewheeling original "Comme des carrés de Feldman," a gleefully twisted noise rock improvisation based on a graphic score. Throughout the album, Aquaserge demonstrate how the pioneering techniques and ideas of the visionary composers can be adapted into contemporary avant-rock settings, and how they've influences the band's own approaches.
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