"French multi-instrumentalist, composer, philosopher and visual artist Jean-Luc Guionnet has been a globally influential figure for several generations of creative peers. He is also one of the great living saxophonists, with an alto voice that uniquely consolidates strands of the instrument's sonic and conceptual history into something powerfully distinct, rigorous, instantly recognisable and future-fit. In 2021, after 30 odd years of solo performance, he released his first full-length alto saxophone solo recording on Los Angeles label Thin Wrist."
"Recorded in a semi-open barn in 2018 in Brittany, L'Épaisseur De L'Air ( The Thickness Of The Air) was concerned fundamentally with the texture, materiality and ideas of saxophone, sound and space. Here, four years on, are two more solo alto recordings. Though not officially released as a pair, they appeared almost simultaneously. One offers two live realisations of the L'Épaisseur De L'Air material on the French label Potlatch, the other private studio recordings made in Hong Kong and released via Empty Editions."
"These sets consolidate Guionnet's voice in documentary form, containing years of situated work. Here, it's possible to hear his playing as the kernel/nexus of a sort of Francophone school of saxophone innovators that includes Daunik Lazro, Christine Abdelnour, Stéphanes Rives, Bertrand Denzler, Patrick Martins, Pierre Borel and Pierre-Antoine Badaroux. It is also possible to find traces of other alto techniques: the M-Base ways of Steve Coleman and Gary Thomas, the lyrical power of Arthur Blythe, the whimper-gnash of Anthony Braxton's Composition 99G, Arthur Jones's Scorpio."
Jean-Luc Guionnet is a French multi-instrumentalist, composer, philosopher and visual artist whose alto saxophone voice consolidates varied sonic and conceptual histories into a distinct, rigorous style. A full-length alto saxophone solo was recorded in a semi-open barn in Brittany in 2018 and released on Thin Wrist in 2021. Two further solo alto recordings appeared nearly simultaneously: one with live realisations on Potlatch and one private studio set from Hong Kong on Empty Editions. The recordings document years of situated work, connect Guionnet to a Francophone school of saxophone innovators, and reveal traces of M-Base, Arthur Blythe and Anthony Braxton techniques.
Read at The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music
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