Remparts D’Argile (Label Bleu)
Henri Texier
Released November 5, 2000
JazzWise Album of the Year 2001
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/browse/MPREb_4d4PQqQFRZe
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6aBkk8cQGf0EONmLk7LLoS?si=-XG32sEnQ2WzgqbgToGrOg
About:
La famille Texier se produit pour la première fois en trio. Le père, toujours prêt à tâter de nouveaux instruments – ici le bendir marocain. Le fils, toujours prêt à changer d’anche – sax alto, clarinette alto, clarinette. Et Tony Rabeson, toujours prêt à jouer afro. Plus plat et terrien, Rabeson relègue désormais la caisse claire à l’arrière-plan des toms basses. Mais voilà, Tony Rabeson se fait trop répétitif et ne couvre pas assez l’espace de ses deux compères. Heureusement, Henri et Sébastien Texier, se lâchent littéralement en dehors de schémas rythmiques balisés. Après plusieurs tournées en commun, père et fils semblent avoir trouvé le parfait équilibre. Sébastien a gagné en liberté, sans pour autant tomber dans les pièges de l’expressivité tous azimuts. Il retrouve alors d’autant mieux son père sur de longues plages mélodiques. Avec ce nouveau trio, Texier confirme son goût pour le voyage, le monde de l’image. Cet album est né des performances du trio lors de la 19ème édition du Festival International du Film d’Amiens en novembre 1999. Le trio jouait face au film « Remparts d’argiles » de Jean-Louis Bertucelli réalisé en 1970. Ce film muet qui n’avait pour seule bande originale que les sons environnants et quelques chants berbères prend alors un caractère rituel qui colle à merveille au rythme et à la pureté des protagonistes et lieux décrits – un village perdu aux confins du Sahara algéro-tunisien où le temps s’est arrêté de couler.
Track Listing:
1. Tehouda désert (Prologue) 2:46
2. Sacrifice 9:28
3. Corde fatigue 3:15
4. Chebika courage 8:08
5. Grève révolte 5:44
6. Enfant livre 2:15
7. Poulie rebellion 5:23
8. Hantise 3:56
9. Leila 5:33
10. Vent poussière 5:12
11. Sommeil Caillou (Épilogue) 2:02
Personnel:
Sébastien Texier: alto saxophone, alto clarinet, clarinet
Tony Rabeson: drums
Henri Texier: double bass, bendir
Recorded and mixed at Studio Gil Evans, July 2000
Engineer: Pierre Guinot
Executive-Producer: Michel Orier
Cover: Christophe Rémy
Photography by Jean-Louis Bertuccelli, Julie Bertuccelli
Review:
This album is drawn from music composed and improvised for Jean-Luis Bertuccelli’s film of the same name. The film was originally released in 1970 and focuses on the lives and struggles of the people of the Algerian-Tunisian Sahara. In 1999, Bertuccelli decided to incorporate a live performance of Texier’s trio and weave this into and around the film’s minimal soundtrack. My guess is that the combined impact of the visual image with this music must be very powerful indeed. However, without even seeing the film, it is still clear that this record derives from a truly inspirational source. To his credit, Texier has avoided the obvious and cliched choices that could have damned this project. He uses themes and forms that reflect the music of North Africa, but without trying to invade that culture or pillage its music styles. Compositions aim to suggest and compliment the visual image not appropriate it through some fake, stylistic contrivances. So, at various times, the music can be allowed to swing in those ways we associate with African-American music or explode in an Aylerish outburst of rage or instead hint at more evidently North African modes. There’s a good example of this in the way Tony Rabeson’s drums are used in the music. They are certainly central to the sound and placed far up in the mix. Drums are important in the music of the region but there is intention to imitate. Rabeson’s approach is quite different. Often he suggests something that is not immediately influenced by either jazz or Arabic music but which is nevertheless touched by both. In a similar way, altoist/clarinettist Sebastien Texier will weave serpentine, snake-charmer lines over a more obviously jazz-based performance from the rhythm section. Post-modern perhaps but far more than bricolage.
Texier’s playing is astonishing. It must help that he is so clear about Bertuccelli’s vision for this project but he actually has such a profound sense of purpose here that it is positively transcendental. He thunders, drums and pounds out the pulse behind this music like a man with a mission. On this form, he must be quite inspirational to play alongside. By all accounts, Bertuccelli produced a film that reflected the sadness and joy of its subjects. Their suffering is not to be patronised or treated to the voyeurism of some kind of cultural tourism. We should only be left with the impression of their dignity and integrity. I suspect this is what Texier has sought to achieve here and he may just have surpassed his best hopes for the project.
Duncan Heining (Jazzwise)
