Multi instrumentalist and composer Elliott Sharp has pioneered ways of applying fractal geometry, chaos theory, and genetic metaphors to musical composition and interaction, as well as pioneering use of computers in improvising performance. Frank Hums de Terre equally approaches music making with the same explorative zeal. His instrumental magpie approach, uneasy with the comfort that being a virtuoso on one instrument brings, mirrors Sharp’s. Their CD together Hums 2 Terre reflects both musicians’ joy in spontaneous creation and teems with ideas. For this New York premiere they will invite two fantastic musicians: drummer Joey Baron and double bassist Bruno Chevillon.
Elliott Sharp - guitars, reeds, piano, electronics
Joey Baron - drums
Bruno Chevillon - double bass
Frank Hums de Terre - turntables
www.elliottsharp.com
www.joeybaron.com
www.myspace.com/brunochevillon
“About as far away from a standard guitar duo as possible, Hums 2 Terre is a post-modern mash up of timbres, textures and tones stretched to their limits by New York composer Elliott Sharp and French improviser Franck Vigroux. Eschewing formality and melodies, the two frame the 10 sonic duals with minidisks, turntables, computer processing and electronics to trigger warbling pulses and squeaky, pitch-sliding friction.
By subverting the guitar’s traditional role and expected sounds with add-ons and unexpected techniques, Sharp’s and Vigroux’s binary creations excitingly transfigure their instruments while providing a memorable listening experience.
–Ken Waxman, In MusicWorks Issue #101
French experimental turntablist-guitarist Franck Vigroux finds a partner who is up for the occasion in American guitarist Elliot Sharp for this rather outrageous set, recorded in two separate sessions. The artists share similar concepts and backgrounds as they have respectively delved into avant/jazz-rock, mutated-jazz, space music and other genre-stretching articulations. This newly issued effort released for Radio France, proclaims a democratic approach as the musicians use turntables, and electronics to aid these complex and generally free-form works.
"Its asymmetrical parts, revved up noise music and steely-edged improvisation. Sharp performs on saxes to augment his wily e-guitar and computer processing escapades, to complement Vigroux’s analogously, blistering guitar voicings. It’s not total cacophony but the overall sound and scope of this powerful endeavor should stimulate more than just a few brain cells. Not for the faint of heart, the musicians’ inject wit and humor while immersed in dialogues that bespeak a wild, anything goes, type free-jam slugfest. And on other note, it’s quite evident that the artists were having a good old time during the majority of these hyper-mode workouts. In sum, the duo’s nicely twisted and bizarre; music without borders methodology provided many odd yet irrefutably, clever standpoints." – Glenn Astarita
This project is possible with the help of FACE, Culturesfrance, le Bureau Export de New York, Chamber Music America, Doris Duke Foundation, Réseau en scéne en Languedoc Roussillon.