Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg on Suite by Marco Fusi and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay

A new release from the Bead Records label featuring Marco Fusi (violin and viola d’amore) and Pierre-Alexandre Tremblay (bass guitar and electronics). Subtitled A Baroque Encounter – A First Dance, it offers sophisticated electroacoustic/instrumental music. The artists state: "Acoustic resonance unfolds across matter and space. Yet other forms of resonance are stirred by encounter and memories. The sounds of this album are shaped through free improvisation—dancing around one another’s gestures, swaying through shifting sonic and emotional situations. But what is improvisation, if not the magical resonances of what each performer already knows and embodies—even more so when the two meet in sound for the first time." I admit I am not familiar with the instrumental trajectory of this electroacoustic music. Yet I listen with interest and delight, as the sonorities, textures, dynamics, and sonic details—creaks, vibrations, crackles—are clearly of the highest caliber. They are worthy of inclusion in Phil Wachsmann’s illustrious Bead label. Six tracks, numbered I through VI, distill sonic explorations and radical instrumental activity, all captured in a high-quality recording mastered by Sam Pluta, an electronics wizard. The handling of the bass guitar within this radical, experimental improvisational context is particularly exemplary. It reminds me of a demonstration John Greaves gave some fifty years ago—back in the Henry Cow era—using his bass guitar, three pedals, and a ping-pong ball backstage. It was surprising. And here, too, I find myself surprised. The same applies to the enigmatic Marco Fusi, who stretches out the friction sounds of his violin while the prepared electric bass lights up with crystalline percussive strikes. One must closely follow the unfolding of the album’s six tracks to fully grasp the scope of their music, which evolves by transforming its sonic character and discoveries as the listening experience progresses. One discovers affinities with the worlds of Wachsmann and Bailey, as well as other artists working with amplified sound—using electronic systems or deliberately playing with the unpredictable nature of amplification. Curious, ghostly atmospheres—rustling, rumbling, or vibrating—weave through time, creating a distinctive and fascinating musical universe where each track possesses its own sonic identity and expresses a specific initial intent. It is a fascinating listen if you are well-versed in, or receptive to, this spirit of experimentation and creation. Suite is a fine, original achievement! I should also add that Pierre Alexandre Tremblay has recorded Eyre with his duo light.box alongside trumpeter Alex Bonney and saxophonist Tom Challenger (Bead 51); a quartet album with the trio Spaces Unfolding (Neil Metcalfe, Phil Wachsmann, and Emil Karlsen – Bead 50); and Undanced Dance with the light.box duo plus Emil Karlsen (Bead 44). Hats off to Emil Karlsen for continuing the Bead Records label’s journey with such creativity (it was founded in 1974)

Ken Waxman (Squidco) on Suite by Marco Fusi and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay

Stretching the definition of a suite into the 21st Century, Italian violinist and viola d'amore player Marco Fusi and Canadian bass guitarist and electronics shaper Pierre Alexandre Tremblay create six linked improvisations that depend as much on voltage expression as acoustic intertwining. Despite both being university professors, Tremblay in the United Kingdom and Fusi in Belgium, there's no whiff of classroom attached to this session. The only academic consciousness projected is the search for the novel, unique and unexpected textures.

While part of the interface reflects and echoes waves of processed electronics, Tremblay, whose free form experience includes recording with among others Philipp Wachsmann and Emil Karlsen, and Fusi, whose contemporary music background encompasses programs with Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel and other ensembles, neither loses track of instrumental qualities.

Seeming unending solid drones, processed refractions and synthesized buzzes may be omnipresent, but space exists for forthright arco string slices and vibrating pizzicato plucks on the violinist's part and pressurized twangs and frails from the bass guitarist. In fact, there are interludes, as on section "V" where a rhythmic bass solo breaks loose from the strained processing and on "II" where Tremblay's subtle fingering suggest a guitar played melody. Strained bow pressure and spiccato lines express Fusi's strategies elsewhere.

At the same time these acoustic sequences are antagonistic or disdainful of the electronic creations. Many of the standout motifs occur when, for instance, the violinist's thinning resonation and ratcheting strains are mirrored by voltage processing. Elsewhere the bass guitarist's cadenced thumb pats cleave carefully to the electronic fizz in such a way that the undulating programed patterns appear to be amplifying as well as altering Tremblay's linear string trembles.

Designed for deep listening Suite isn't your ancestors so-called classical music suite. But it contains enough horizontal movement and musical surprises to keep the program constantly appealing, even if slightly dissonant.