While the French guitarist Marc Ducret is best known stateside for his association with the celebrated New York saxophonist Tim Berne, he has a number of other partnerships across Europe, including one with the Lithanian saxophonist Liudas Mockūnas (a member of Pierre Dorge's New Jungle Orchestra who has also played with Andrew Hill, Mats Gustafsson, Barry Guy and others). The two have worked together in the Copenhagen Art Ensemble, as well as such bands as Megaphone and Toxikum, and they paired up again in 2006 for a duo recording in Denmark. That session now sees its release as Silent Vociferation on the Lithanian No Business Records.
It's an exciting vantage for Ducret, who has been slowly building more of a profile in the U.S. He's been known to be a blistering guitarist, and has shown himself to be a strong composer and arranger in his own work. But he isn't often quite heard in the role of accompanist, which is how her performs in much of the duo with Mockūnas. It's a dark session — in mood it could sit alongside Mick Harris's Scorn, for example, or some of the legions of underground improvised metal bands rising up around the world. The saxophone of course gives it different flavor, but Ducret plays low, electrified rumbles and issues bent, feedback-inducing squeals across the first three tense, lumbering tracks.
At midpoint, the tightly staggered "Alive" comes closer to the jazz one might expect from a guitar / sax duo, and sets a new mood which is carried through the 24-minute closing suite, "End of Poetry." The second act is largely more articulated, more punctuated, more about music and less about sound, and will probably feel more familiar to both artists' listeners. The closing section of the suite, and the album, turns the proceedings on their ear once again, blowing and banging away, pulling and stretching like an acre of Silly Putty. It's a strong ending for an album full of surprises.
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