After a three-year hiatus, Guy Segers is re-acquainting us with his mysterious part-improv, part-structured vehicle, the Eclectic Maybe Band.
Once again, there is a deep well of respected musicians from whom he elicits some diverse and intuitive outings and which he then painstakingly stitches together in the studio to produce dramatic pieces of adventurous bearing, veering all over the map and taking in jazz, funk, minimalism and drifting ambience, sometimes all within one track.
It might sound overly busy, but the truth is that there is a lot of room to breathe throughout the eight pieces presented here and the fact that the line-up of players varies with each song means that each selection has its own feel, often with the only connecting element Guy’s elastic, distant yet warm bass.Again Alors? opens with an intro that feels like a camera panning back to show the interior of an abandoned submarine; there are eight players involved here, but the sound is sparse and creeps slowly through electronic mist, brooding, generating a sense of foreboding. As the piece progresses, so other players interject, lending neo-classical touches that introduce fresh pressure as things slowly evolve. It is the beauty of the long-form pieces here that allow evolution but at a steady pace. We are offered various solos as if they are introducing themselves, a brief dazzle and then a step back into the shadows.
The album moves through many settings; the sylvan scene of “Retable Vertigineux”, with its shimmering haze and companionable flute entwining with the intrigue of clarinet, is very different to the heavy, slow burn of “Further On The Ladder”, which has the inimitable vocals of Carla Diratz channelling her inner Mark Lanegan, reflecting a life lived well. Pascal Vaucel‘s guitar simmers below the surface, and the rocky rumble steers and struts around the voice. Carla’s phrasing and the use of vibrato are wonderful, while Cécile Broché‘s violin is like the antithesis with its high-pitched keening and elongated stretch. Generally, the collective improvisations tend to be more progressive, building from a point into a widescreen whole, like the piano droplet-infused tidal drift of “Tingling Skin”; while those pieces composed by Guy tend to start from a point with more of a groove, like the flute-speckled funky workout “A Beast Trophy” which, although it grooves, it does have a measured feel. To be honest, where Guy is editing the improvisations into a kind of sculptured whole is extraordinary and I can’t work out how the players know what they are playing against; but it always seems to work and interestingly, different players do bring a different feel to their pieces. Dirk Wachtelaer‘s drumming throughout the album is percussive and gently busy, while Fabrice Owerzarzak tends to bring a simpler, more fluid groove entwining beautifully with Dirk’s mysterious bass clarinet on “Voici, Voila”, still leaving plenty of room for the tension of Cécile’s violin.The album ends with a piece that stands apart once again with the ghost machine of Kazayuki Kishino revolving slowly against a stately echo-laden bassline. Cathryn Robson‘s stark vocals are disconcerting hints that ripple and stretch, growl and scrape as the pieces moves like a stricken vessel, the bass desperate to move away from the rim of a black hole. It is quite an unexpected ending to an album that is already jam-packed with intrigue and brimming with ideas.
The selection of tracks and the sequence works well, but it is Guy’s attention to detail that stuns the most. His vision for the Eclectic Maybe Band is singular, but it works; and thanks to the ingenuity and generosity of the players, this is another success.-Mr Olivetti-
