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!
