CD of the month

Reinhold Friedl & Franck Vigroux; Tobel

Label: La Muse en Circuit / ALM 005

Our new producer Armeno Alberts (see: Introducing...) has chosen this month's CD.

The most recent CD on the label La Muse en Circuit, from the studio for electroacoustic music in Paris that was establishedby Luc Ferrari, was issued in February.

This is the fifth album on the label and includes the track 'TOBEL', the studio version of a live performance by Reinhold Friedl and Franck Vigroux, recorded during the Bruits Blancs #3 festival (Paris – Anis Gras, May 2013).

Reinhold Friedl, born in 1964, is a Berlin composer, pianist and sound-artist. He has become known especially as the founder and artistic director of Zeitkratzer, the awkward Berlin ensemble for contemporary music.
Friedl has played together with a number of celebrities including Lee Ranaldo, Merzbow and Phill Niblock. His own (solo) performances mainly involve sounds coming from the interior of the piano.

Franck Vigroux is een French sound artist / electro musician, whose universe consists of a mix of noise, improvisation, electroacoustics, industrial and radio-
phonics. In 2008 Vigroux founded the famous Compagnie d’Autres Cordes, an ensemble specializing in performance art. He has also collaborated with Elliot
Sharp and Zeena Parkins amongst others.

During the Bruits Blancs #3 festival, Friedl and Vigroux played together for the
first time; Vigroux reworked the piano sounds made by Friedl in real time with his electronics. The result was a very special fusion of the mainly minimalistic sound world of the piano and the harsh noise of the electronics.

The CD includes the studio version of that live performance, in which all the
sounds are mixed to a beautifully balanced whole. And also the duration of the work (36 minutes) is perfect, as this sort of sound performance can often last
much too long. This does not matter during a live performance, as there is a
lot to see, but it is different in case of a CD version. This recording is beautifully balanced, musically speaking, especially with respect to the tension curve of the piece.

Info: soundcloud.com/la-muse-en-circuit-cncm/reinhold-friedl-franck-vigroux