Rien

Album review

The unfortunate back-cover blurb of this disc proclaims, "Rien is a journey, a road-movie as well as a soundtrack." One imagines that Winter & Winter felt the commercial necessity to package Akchote's project in the guise of a non-narrative movie soundtrack (as well as providing a booklet of intriguingly cinematic photos by Daida Moriyama). However, Rien actually seems to be his attempted entry into the electroacoustic improvisational world pioneered by AMM and occupied, in 2000, by an abundance of low-volume improvising musicians such as Polwechsel and Gunter Muller and of labels like Erstwhile and Mego.
The results are partially successful. Joined by computer manipulator Erik Minkkinen and sampler/turntablist Andrew Sharpley of Stock, Hausen and Walkman, Akchote does produce some rich swatches of sound, snapshots devoid of traditional melodic or rhythmic vocabulary but evocative of the random sounds of quiet urban nights. On previous releases, Akchote had displayed considerable chops on his instrument, both in his own compositions and in his deconstructions of standards by, among others, Ornette Coleman. Here he admirably sublimates his technical prowess to the more ambient concept of the pieces, producing sounds bearing little relation to those traditionally associated with the guitar, but owing much to the extended techniques developed by AMM's Keith Rowe. If the outcome is less powerful or organic than that created by longtime practitioners of the genre, it's at least a step in a potentially rewarding direction.
One wonders, though, whether or not this is a shoe that fits. The most successful track on the disc is the final one, "Pousse," where Akchote's guitar is easily recognizable as such and the song structure and melodic content is the clearest. Perhaps his essential nature is more traditional than he lets on here.

© Brian Olewnick /TiVo