Bertrand GAUGUET – John TILBURY
“Contre-courbes”

Bertrand Gauguet : alto saxophone
John Tilbury : piano

CD 1
Live at Église Saint Maximin, Metz (France) Total time : 42:04

CD 2
Live at Festival Paysages d’écoute at Les Quinconces – L’Espal scène nationale du Mans (France) Total time : 43:54

“Tilbury doesn’t need grips, it’s only worth recommending again the late 2019 disc, ” Tiger’s Mind “. Gauguet, class of ’70, is a multidisciplinary artist with a center of gravity in the alto sax. Attentive to the sound as if he were a glass blower, for him transparency and form are inseparable categories. Very sensitive to the spatial and environmental dimension (he collaborates with Eric La Casa), he is not afraid of acoustic and synaesthetic mimesis. In this double album the instruments are naked and illuminated by each other. The performances were recorded one in the church of San Massimino in Metz in 2016 and the other in the ultra-modern structures of L’Espal in Mans in 2019, on the occasion of the Paesaggi d’Ascolto festival. The two sets have a similar structure, explorations of an inner place that will never end to know. Atmospheres now shadowy and sacred, impressionistic fluorescence, evocations of nocturnal animals. The pianist investigates the whole body of the instrument and also plays chords of melodic shimmering. The reed insufflates vibrant sounds in space, pierces subtle notes and redraws their coordinates, chiseling out lyrical moments as well. There is a dramatic, theatrical dimension. Improvisation becomes a practice of sifting through time and space. Sound is searched for in the recesses of an obscurity-silence which is the third interpreter. A process of re-composition, full and empty, of an organic idea of musical architecture. ”
Dionis Capuano Blow up, IT, 04-2021