JEAN LUC GUIONNET - Non-Organic Bias

There are records in which the conceptual aspect ends up almost entirely "knocking out" the musical fabric. This is the case, for example, with this monumental double album (we're talking a gruelling one hour and five minutes!) by multi-instrumentalist Jean-Luc Guionnet, who has for some time now been active in the field of the most experimental music.

Divided into three parts, "Non-Organic Bias" grew out of a study of the acoustic characteristics of some organ-only recordings, which Guionnet then filtered in a variety of ways. In the liner notes, the French artist explains how the various compositions were put together, also outlining the philosophical reflections that inspired them.

The album opens with the title track, twenty-one minutes of fluctuations and reverberations of sounds/noises that give rise to a kind of ambient music for microcosms, built on sudden shifts in timbre and volume. For "Espace Bas", Guionnet speaks of the sound of wind, of nostalgia and the noise of time... But what we get is barely fifty minutes of music that unfolds quietly, moving through space like the breathing of a sleeping giant, leaving the world around it to carry on unaltered, as itself.

This is, in short, a strongly conceptual music, in which emotion is reduced to a minimum, leaving room for the mind to wander. Dedicated to Giacomo Leopardi, "Estuaire" is the most interesting moment on the record, its fifty-four minutes of dynamic, shape-shifting minimalism building toward a final apotheosis with symphonic overtones, in which all the submerged pathos of the work seems to find an outlet.

Of course, the listener's patience is put to a severe test, but, at least in this case, a few glimmers of light can be glimpsed beyond the suffocating weight of "conceptualism".

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

21/10/2009