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Xavier Charles
Platform: Flux Reflux
by Glenn Astarita
French clarinetist Xavier Charles along with three inventive Norwegian instrumentalists acutely align their imaginative powers amid a curiously interesting soundstage, steeped in free-form minimalism, ambience, layered tonal shadings and so on. Fractured storylines, along with oddball tunings and Charles' multidimensional phrasings and acoustic effects may fake the listener into thinking the program contains electronics but no such devices are listed on the personnel listings. They occasionally explore the guts of their respective instruments along with subliminal ostinato motifs, ...
read moreDans les arbres: Dans les arbres
by John Kelman
When French clarinetist Xavier Charles, pianist Christian Wallumrød, guitarist Ivar Grydeland and percussionist Ingar Zach appeared at Norway's Punkt Festival in 2007, they'd yet to take the name Dans les arbres, which would also become the title of this freely improvising unit's 2008 ECM debut. It's taken two years for the album to find Stateside release--anomalous for a label that has, in the past, seen some significant gaps between European and American releases, but which has, in recent years, become ...
read more"Dans Les Arbres" North American Tour this Winter
Source:
ECM Records
Charles / Grydeland / Wallumrød / Zach Dans les arbres Xavier Charles: clarinet, harmonica Ivar Grydeland: acoustic guitar, banjo, scruti box Christian Wallumrød: piano Ingar Zach: percussion, bass drum Guitarist Ivar Grydeland and percussionist Ingar Zach, prime movers and catalysts for free improvised music in Norway, got in touch with Christian Wallumrød after hearing his Sofienberg Variations" on ECM and they have since worked together in diverse combinations including, since 2004, 'Dans les arbres' ...
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