(Corentin Aussems, guitars & composition; Joanathan Aussems, piano & composition; Gérald Bernard, battery & percussion; Guillaume Van Parys, saxophones; Sophie Bayet, violin & flutes; Simon Laffineur, guitars)
Again, such a thoroughly crossed-over CD that we haven’t the faintest where to place it, so the Pop area won the flip. Love this stuff! Comes from Belgium, and if it and a couple other releases from the same source are any indication, there is a similar musical melting pop going on in that country as in neighboring Amsterdam. There are 16 tracks here, several only 40 seconds long, and the titles won’t mean much because most look like made-up words.
The music is a wild and wonderful mix of acoustic influences, including klezmer, circus music (often reminding me of San Francisco’s Kamikaze Ground Crew), Kurt Weill, gypsy jazz, tango, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and a theater pit band. The note booklet is ECM style – only instead of only photos the illustrations are graphic novel type drawings, again with no explanations. The arrangements are great; unlike some of the other efforts along these lines, the instrumentation doesn’t sound too spare or primitive. It’s just right, and each tune is a brief glimpse into a different world. Certainly not a bland consumme. This one will find lots of playing in my car while driving.
“A Consommer De Préférence” plus a date. The English equivalent would be: “Best eaten before…” such and such a date!]
– John Henry
