A brand-new structure The Bridge is actually a group of various bands which explore links β or sonic communion β between French and Chicago musicians. Toute seul, the bassist emphasizes her semi-vaudevillian role. At the same time she showcases her singular vocal stylings that incorporate bel-canto-like warbling and unfocussed speaking in tongues. Buzzing excess arrives from cello-string slices, flighty obbligatos from the two brass instruments and a finale with boiling kettle-like electronics mated French horn echoes.
Replete with vocal tessitura that include canine yelps and hog-like snorts, plus harsh string plucking and tremolo brass lines that are distanced from the diode-inflected oscillations, the initial quintet track appears disconnected from the others.
However the five players hit their stride later on and on the extended encore. Nordic orienteering tones from stretched timbres succeed close-linked horn French kisses, while stark wave-form extrusions underscore a dulcet duet between mellow trumpet wisps and echoing French horn sighs often creating generous sonic color blocks. With multiple timbres available, the group can feature two brass players, two string players, two vocalists or two variations of electronic juddering at any time.
No afterthought, the encore electrifies the conclusion as if live wires have been attached to a drowsing corpus. At points, abstract ideas are proclaimed violently, leading to screeching expositions that fail to distinguish among instruments or voices.
Finally a spectacular upsurge is attained as elephant-like blasts and string swipes propelled with broadsword-like power are rearranged so that sound shards fit together like the pigments and other elements that designate a well-executed oil painting. Separatism as well as unity is one of the factors of The Bridge Sessions 01, which was recorded in Avignon France just before the end of a tour by this ensemble.
