Rimouski electric bassist Éric Normand and Montreal guitarist Louis Beaudoin-de la Sablonnière formed their duo Brûlez les Meubles (burn the furniture) in 2018. On their latest recording, Folio #5, they fan the flames with three additional fire-kindlers—Montreal pianist Marianne Trudel, Toronto vibraphonist Jonathan Huard, and German tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock—to create seven inventive tracks.
Despite the vibes being the only idiophone, the sounds are aggressive and affable. On “La vie commence aujourd’hui,” Huard’s decorative resonations are most prominent when mixed with Trudel’s measured keyboard touch. Yet even here electric bass stops and guitar flanges prevent the tune from becoming slack. Group combustion is encouraged, but without charring any person or sound.
The most notable instance of this is “Vagues / Spider Song,” where sonorous bass thumps and vibrating guitar clips intersect with arching saxophone trills, sweeping piano glissandi, and spaced vibraphone echoes. The result is an expressive tune that escalates at a vibrant pace without losing traces of lyricism. Keyboard expositions broaden to staccato, prestissimo, and prominent rhythms elsewhere, often in tandem with jagged reed bites. Laubrock incites the prototypical extended saxophone snarl on “Conscience du tragique” that is met by ringing vibe reverb and pedal point piano clunks. Meanwhile, guitar-bass cadences preserve horizontal advancement at all times.
Overall, this is one fire listeners will not want to prevent.
Ken Waxman is a Toronto-based journalist who has written about improvised and other musics for many years. Many of his articles on music can be accessed at <www.jazzword.com>.