JOHN BISSET
Smithy
213
CD017
PAOLO ANGELI
Bucato
ReR
PA1
Both these
CDs are described as solo guitar sessions, which is true. But so is the
fact that a rowboat and an ocean liner are both water vehicles.
John Bisset uses a standard acoustic model to improvise on seven melodies
from The Scottish Students' SongBook, which were recorded direct-to-DAT
in Cheshire, England. Recorded at different concerts in Italy and France,
Italian guitarist Paolo Angeli plays his 20 selections on a giant, cello-sized
Sardinian guitar. It's tuned from one-fourth to one-fifth below standard,
and "prepared" with an extra bridge, pedal-operated, piano-like
hammers, a bow in the form of a mechanical claw, pick ups, microphones
and many additional criss-crossed strings.
Bologna-based Angeli's conversion to free improv of this folk guitar that
usually accompanies monadic singing in northern Sardinia creates spectacular
aural fireworks. Yet Bisset's low-key approach isn't without its rustic
charm. Recorded on his 43rd birthday in his hometown's smithy, it memorializes
a relative, perhaps his father, with unshowy version of simple, tunes.
Part of the widespread European imaginary folklore movement, Angeli has
been a member of ethnic dance and chamber groups and played with committed
improvises such as Anglo-Australian violinist Jon Rose and British guitarist
Fred Frith. Ranging in length from 42 seconds to a little over six minutes,
the tunes here were recorded without overdubs, even though at times he
sounds like an entire string band and more.
On "E Vai!" for instance, he begins with a solid theme made
up of flailing downstrokes, then begins picking out a secondary theme
on other strings as he continues playing the first. Soon vibrating string
tones are moving back and forth between the two lines.
Tapping his feet at the beginning of "Linee di Fuga", the massed
strings that are then brought into play produce what could be a rock ballad
played on acoustic instruments. Soon cello-like tremolos appear. Suddenly
the tempo doubles and cadences get more frantic, as Angeli seems to be
physically beating the instrument. Sampled female singing voices enter
the mix, as does the sound of a Sardinian accordion. The squeezebox appears
to be amplified through Angeli's pick up so there's as much static as
melody in its sound. Ending is a thumping bass line that threatens to
become the intro to Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love".
"Transit" resembles the sound of a jet airplane. It's an exercise
in shuffle bowing and all the overtones that can produce. Often you hear
the torque of the strings popping with the pressure of the bow. "Discussione
Inutile", on the other hand, finds Angeli finger picking swinging
licks on his nylon guitar strings as if was Charlie Byrd playing a bossa
nova.
"Si Riprendre" has all the intense pressure of a flamenco showpiece,
that is if flamencos end with what sounds like an aluminum pie plate banging
on the strings. "Etterbeek" full of thumps, ponticello and shuffle
bowing, and could be an Appalachian folk tune played by a hillbilly band
that includes a cello. Meanwhile "A. Rieghe" features thwacks
on the guitar's wood and pick guard and a strummed line that evolves into
enough slurred fingering to replicate two 12-string guitars playing at
once. When claw-induced echoing scrapes and screeches are added and the
tempo quickens, what results in a Gypsy Kings-like tune would sound like
if improvising cellist Tristan Honsinger gigged with them.
Other places Angeli produces enough circular motion, pitch sliding and
basso continuum that each sound seems to come from a different source.
These include a Spanish guitar, a tenor banjo, a 10-course lute, bagpipes,
generators and sequencers, a lead guitar with a delay pedal, a plinking,
vaudevillian four-string ukulele and last, but not least a coffin lid
opening and closing.
An encyclopedic introduction to what can be done with a prepared Sardinian
guitar, BUCATO's weakness is that Angeli often appears to be developing
only one idea at a time on many tracks. Fewer tunes with a series of musical
variations may have been more palatable.
A few of BUCATO's tunes sound like standard folk airs, but contrasting
his output with Angeli's, Bisset is simplicity personified. Both men have
particular agendas as well. The Sardinian has pushed a traditional instrument
into the 21st century. The Englishman, who usually works with a avant
improvisers such as harpist Rhodri Davies. and German drummer Burkhard
Beins, may have seen this birthday CD with songs exhibiting "harmony
of all pure, noble and joyous emotions" as the SongBook notes, as
a way to recapture the bucolic ways of the early 20th century.
Frustratingly for an innovator with Bisset's talents, many of the sounds
are a little too down home and innocent. Lovely interpretations, without
enough rhythmic impetus, a few skirt New Age background music. The more
earnest ones could have come from the Ewan MacColl songbook.
"Summer - the birds of the air..." for instance, the longest
track at more than nine minutes, may have been designed as requiem for
the man to whom the CD is dedicated. Yet, although you're impressed by
the pure sounds of fingers sliding up and down the nylon strings, a little
of this goes a long way. All and all the piece comes across as too sober
and meandering. If this is what Stockport is like, no wonder Bisset lives
in London.
More impressive and far livelier are pieces from the middle of the disc,
although one listen to "Fire" despite its repetitive downstrokes
and slurred string slashing will assure anyone that this is neither the
tune recorded by Jimi Hendrix nor the Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
However the tune does end with what appears to be match strokes. These
also make their appearance on "Riding down from Bangor". In
actual fact, those sounds and the vacuum cleaner-like noises that begin
the track are probably what can be heard every day in Luke Lister's smithy.
On that track, Bisset melds sliding finger picks and accelerating flailing
with the crackle and snaps of the hearth. As he plays more quickly the
vibrations multiply and soon the smithy echoes have become part of the
music.
"Funiculi, funicula" is the only other standout track. Here
the Italian song is reimagined by giving it a finger-snapping intro then,
double timing a set of variation, before briefly introducing the familiar
theme. True to the field recording aesthetic, Bisset downshifts his chording
at the end as he stops to say "hello" to a passing punter.
A shorter than 38 minute home town souvenir, SMITHY is a defiantly minor
work that probably has more resonance for its creator than any one else.
-- Ken Waxman
Track Listing: Bucato: 1. Lulas 2. Mesh Plug 3. Azulejos 4. A. Rieghe
5. Etterbeek (intro) 6. Etterbeek 7. Gocce 8. Tavole a Vela 9. Si Riprendre
10. E Vai! 11. Fuori dal Bacello (intro) 12. Fuori dal Bacello 13. Transit
14. Bagagli Smarriti 15. Discussione Inutile 16. Partenze 17. Linee di
Fuga 18. Via Libera 19. Passe-Partout 20. Prexau
Track Listing: Smithy: 1. Dedication 2. Winter rain 3. Riding down from
Bangor 4. Fire 5. Cock Robin 6. Funiculi, funicula 7. Summer - the birds
of the air... 8. Old cabin home
Personnel: Bucato: Paolo Angeli (prepared giant Sardinian guitar and vocals)
Personnel: Smithy: John Bisset (acoustic guitar)