Diatribes is a Geneva-based open-ended improv ensemble guided by a desire to explore differing musical approaches and create a ‘malleable musical mass’. On ‘Piano(s)’ the group is centred around regulars Johann Bourquenez and Jacques Demierre on – yup – pianos, joined by guests Cyril Bondi on drums and D’Incise on laptop and objects, a collective which delivers on the group’s mantra but whose results can best be described as patchy.
With the drums generally whipping up a maelstrom, Diatribes suffer from a lack of outlet through which to channel Bondi’s restless frenzy. The group used to count saxophonist Gaël Riondel as a core member, and his blowing would inject some much needed direction into much of this session. For the most part, Bourquenez and Demierre are content to add colourful splashes to Bondi’s loosely-tethered anchor, but these are decorative, with little sense of constructive interaction. D’Incise’s contribution is similarly restrained, but more in tune with the surrounding action, or at least his bowed and tinkered scrapes and rattlings blend in more easily. Opener ‘Tornade’ offers the album’s strongest statement, one piano hammering out Charlemagne Palestine tintinabbulation, the other adding more measured touches while the drums slug away, while ‘Presque Mourir’, in it’s onkyo-like silence, enforces close and attentive performance. Elsewhere it’s a power struggle, one in which Bondi too often dominates, overwhelms, and drowns the other participants.
The whole album can be freely downloaded from Insubordinations.
Joshua Meggitt
