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JEAN-MARC<br />
FOUSSAT<br />
L'OISEAU<br />
FOU 01<br />
L'OISEAU / L'OISEAU AUX<br />
PLUMES BAROILEES / LA<br />
VIE S'ARRETE. TOTAL TIME:<br />
42:49.<br />
Jean-marc Fousat - AKS<br />
synth, VCS3 synth, jaw harp,<br />
duck calls, toys, voice. 3/11,<br />
7/12, 8/12, unspecified<br />
location.<br />
New Issues<br />
126 | CadenCe Magazine | april May June 2013<br />
J ean-Marc Foussat is a musician (mostly electronics<br />
but, in the past some guitar as well) who has been<br />
working since the 1970s, first in a French rock band,<br />
then with a solo album in the early 80s. He was one<br />
of the founders of the estimable Potlatch records, a<br />
label that has specialized in electro-acoustic music. He<br />
has also worked as an engineer on various recordings<br />
through the years. Over the past 15 years, he’s released<br />
collaborative recordings on Potlatch, Leo and Ayler<br />
Records with Raymond Boni, Jac Berrocal, Noel Akchote<br />
and Roger Turner.<br />
My introduction to Foussat was his 2010 Leo release<br />
Aliquide recorded with saxophonist Sylvain Guerineau.<br />
It was an intense set of duets letting the listener<br />
know just what the extended range of these two<br />
instruments can do. L'Oiseau is a solo album, dedicated<br />
to Victor Foussat, a poet and visual artist who passed<br />
away in 2012 at the age of 27. One of his paintings is<br />
reproduced on the inside cover of this disc. One would<br />
presume that Victor was Jean-Marc’s brother or some<br />
other close relative and this disc is Jean-Marc's way of<br />
working through his feelings.<br />
On L’Oisseau, he plays vintage synthesizers and<br />
small instruments, presumably distorted through<br />
the electronics. The program consists of two lengthy<br />
pieces (both over 20 minutes) separated by the reading<br />
of a poem of Victor Foussat's. This is intense, dense<br />
music and Foussat is a wizard with these instruments.<br />
"L'Oiseau" sounds like a one-take piece that, even as it<br />
ebbs and flows, frequently has a menacing edge to it.<br />
On “La Vie S’Arrete” (A Life Ends), the material is more<br />
cyclical and loop-based. At times one can sometimes<br />
make out the toys, voice and other non-electronic<br />
instruments but they are subsumed and distorted by<br />
the electronics. There's a nice, "dirty", raw sound to<br />
these pieces. These are not the clean, digital electronics<br />
made by today's laptops. This is true, visceral music<br />
that may seem assaultive to the unconditioned listener<br />
at times but there's also an innate beauty here that's<br />
hard to deny. There's also an emotional arc to this<br />
music and perhaps therein lies its beauty. Whatever the<br />
motivation or method, L'Oiseau is a tour-de-force and<br />
one of the best pure electronic music recordings I’ve<br />
heard in some time. Robert Iannapollo
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