This is a fantastic duo from Bordeaux, France consisting of Vincent Beysselance (drums) and Thomas Bonvalet (guitar) .They create some brilliant acoustic, jazzy improv/”rock in oppostion” sounds. If you could imagine an “unplugged”, all-instrumental version of Slint mixed with say, the California Guitar Trio or less tech version of the 1980 “Friday Night In San Francisco” LP by Al DiMeola - John McLaughlin - Paco de Lucia.
The Slint reference just sounds right as you can hear snippets of them within sections of this CD’s ten tracks. If yo liked that Kaki King album from last year, then this will also be up your alley. Fantastic playing all around and DEFINITELY worth more than just one listen.
((((1)))) Bass-y, very Slint-like, the flow has a real “rolling” feeling to it. Some beautifully played plucked guitar notes and groovy jazzy drum fills.
(((2))) More ‘rolling’ tempo but this time with some random sounding chords that sound a bit improvised yet they manage to stick together as if planned out. Again, more fantastic guitar string plucking, nice use of space & repetition. (2:19-2:40),
((((3)))) Various measures that stretch from 5 to 8 notes and while it’s not many notes, they manage to make it sound very complex. Trippy, samba-like sound (1:20-1:34).
(((4)))) Laid back, trad-jazz drumming + some guitar noodling. Pretty minimal, progressively gets louder & somewhat prog-rock like at 2:44 then goes back down to the quiet parts
((((5)))) Bouncy intro then some random noodling floating from jazz to fusion/prog sections & various tempos/volumes
(((6))) Begins with these watery sounding chords and proceeds into a flow not unlike track #4. Something like Slint acoustic meets Dirty Three. (As there’s some tweaked out violin in the mix).
((((7)))) More bounciness running at mid tempo to slow, lots of what could be called “bright” sounding chords (major chords most likely) and eventually leading up to proggy-rockin’ elements thrown in the mix.
(((8))) Some throbbing percussion along with more flowing guitar patterns. Other elements include: a droning & tweaked-out violin. Something like Henry Cow after eating some psychotropic-laced cud.
((((9)))) AWESOME guitar playing, just a lot of crazy random notes. Kind of short, though.
((((10))) High-pitched notes which sound like a lute or harp mixed with the style & patterns of tracks #2 & #4