JEAN GUÉRIN – Tacet (SouffleContinu Records / LP-1971 / Reissue LP-2015)

Label: SouffleContinu Records – FFL009, Futura Records ‎– SON 04

Format: Vinyl, LP, 45 RPM, Reissue / Country: France / Released: Sep 2015

Style: Free Jazz, Leftfield, Abstract, Experimental, Space-Age

Recorded January 1971 at Ossian & Magne Studios.

Overdubs and mixing at Europasonor.

Licensed by Gérard Terronès

Mixed By – Charles Rocher, Claude Martenot, Daniel Naudin, Jean Guérin

Sleeve Notes – Philippe Carles

Photos – Hilary Gostinsky

Composed By – Jean Guérin

Matrix / Runout: No identifiers

Barcode: 3491570051221

Limited run of 200 / pressed on solid grey vinyl

©2015 SouffleContinu Records / originally released in 1970 by Futura Records.

Although the label says 33rpm, it has to be played at 45rpm

side A

A1 - Triptik 2 ........................................................................................................ 5:42

A2 - Mixage Vert .................................................................................................. 3:49

A3 - Maochat ....................................................................................................... 4:40

A4 - Ca Va Lecomte ............................................................................................ 4:52

side B

B1 - BM 37 .......................................................................................................... 1:57

B2 - Interminable Hommage À Zaza ................................................................... 4:41

B3 - Reflexion 2 ................................................................................................... 5:06

B4 - Gaub 71 ....................................................................................................... 8:17

Line-up / Musicians:

Jean Guérin – electric bass, goblet drum [darbouka], electronics [vcs3, generator],

                        percussion, vocals [gloup tenor], drums [electronic]

Bernard Vitet – trumpet [water trumpet]

Jean Paul Rondepierre – trumpet

Philippe Maté – tenor saxophone

Dieter Guévissler – double bass, cello [violon]

Françoise Achard – vocals [gloup vocal]

Fourth in a reissue series of the cult French underground Futura label.

Highly surreal and wonderfully futuristic, “Tacet”, one of the best kept secrets of the Futura catalogue is the soundtrack work of Jean Guérin for Claude Faraldo's anarchic film "BOF, anatomie d’un livreur". This avant-garde psychedelic jazz masterpiece is a blend of abstract vocals, unusual electronics, twisted sound envelopes and nervous brass instruments.

First official vinyl reissue in over 40 years fully licenced by Gérard Teronnès. Easily one of the finest archival discoveries of the year. 

Housed in gatefold jacket, but unfortunately, ______SOLD OUT___

https://www.soufflecontinurecords.com/product/jean-guerin-tacet-ffl009-son04-grey

The French never cease to amaze and confound! Jean Guérin was mostly known as a drummer, appearing on quite a few free jazz sessions. For this, his only solo outing, he set out to make a soundtrack to a film (by Claude Faraldo) called "BOF, anatomie d'un livreur". The soundtrack was released as "Tacet" on the cult Futura label (also known for putting out records by Red Noise, Mahogany Brain, Chene Noir, Jac Berrocal, Bernard Vitet) for the legendary "SON" series. His choice of musicians is absolutely impeccable; notable figures of the French scene like Bernard Vitet and Philippe Maté contribute their talents. Vitet even plays "underwater trumpet"! Guérin himself takes up a lot of instruments, from electric bass to darbouka to VCS3 and sound generators. Overall, "Tacet" is full of strange sounds and even stranger arrangements. Françoise Achard (of Jac Berrocal "Parallels" and Michel Potage "Occupe" fame) contributes wordless vocals to several tracks, and most of the time her voice sounds like another instrument rather than a human being. The use of both contrabass and electric bass on some tracks provides an interesting sound, considering the electric bass is treated to sound nothing like it should (this isn't a bad thing!). It's hard to pick out standout tracks, since this all flows together perfectly and is best experienced all the way through. The first and last tracks, "Triptik 2" and "Gaub 71" respectively, both feature the same fast rhythm (which sounds like a mix of darbouka and primitive drum machine), but otherwise are different entities. "Gaub 71" is the more experimental of the two, with a constantly evolving structure over its eight minutes. "Triptik 2" is punctuated with the trumpets of Jean Paul Rondepierre and Vitet, and Maté contrubutes his saxophone. This is the closest that "Tacet" comes to jazz, as the remaining tracks are pure explorations of sound, somewhere between free jazz and the cosmic explorations of Kluster et all.

The music on "Tacet" is much more closely related to Herbie Hancock´s Mwandishi sextet - not rhythmically but sonically; incidentally, Patrick Gleason participated in the recordings of "Tacet". One can imagine Gleason to have played this recent recording to Herbie Hancock before they went to the studio to record Herbie´s new music. "Tacet" was recorded before Hancock´s Mwandishi albums! It doesn´t make those LPs less spectacular, but somehow it puts things in a different light. I had always thought that Herbie had been the pioneer launching himself and me into a musical parallel universe with "Mwandishi, Crossings" and "Sextant", and nobody followed on that path. Only Miles Davis and Weather Report occasionally recorded some kind of psychedelic Jazz and only for a short time: Miles went silent in ´75 and Weather Report went into fusion and that was that. German psychedelica such as Tangerine Dream, Popol Vuh or Klaus Schulze pale into insignificance by comparison to "Tacet". Nothing quite like it - the closest comparison I can come up with is the free-jazz-in-a-reverberating-echo-chamber sound of Sun Ra's "Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy" combined with the extraterrestrial electronic experiments of Pierre Henry, throw in some absurdist vocals, and ... I don't know. It's so odd. But then in all comes together in an entrancing future-primitive vibe, with bubbling water sounds, mysterious echoey effects and hypnotic rhythms (and non-rhythms).........................

If you want truly unique music, this is it! Truly an obscure masterpiece!!!

(Review by V. S.)

If you find it, buy this album!