Bruno Duplant - 'one hour north'
eg.p010


limited edition taiyo yuden full size cd mounted on art card + additional score / print card.

French musician & composer Bruno Duplant offers three works: two solo, for multiple instruments & field recordings & a realisation of one of his graphic scores featuring Vanessa Rossetto, Paulo Chagas, Lee Noyes, Phil Hargreaves & Bruno himself.

an alternative realisation of the graphic score, performed by class 7, dunedin steiner school, new zealand, conducted by Lee Noyes is available as a free download to those who purchase this cd edition.
(please note: the score card that accompanies this release contains a small typo - it reads 'stainer school' which should of course be 'steiner school')


to order the cd version please see the first post on this website

review by Brian Olewnick / Just Outside website:

An intriguing selection of three very different pieces from Dupont, a bassist who I don't believe I've heard before (as ever, said with great hesitation). "arras, une heur trente d'arrêt" combines field recordings, largely of a mother and children speaking (in French), small percussive objects, between-radio-stations type buzzes and, notably, someone whistling a melancholy almost-tune. It's a very full, vivid and wonderful work, not a little reminiscent of Ferrari; something about the combination of sounds is both warm and subtly disturbing.

"one for for five (who goes slowly goes" is indeed for a quintet (Vanessa Rossetto/viola with small motors, Paulo Chagas/bass clarinet, Lee Noyes/inside & outside piano, Phil Hargreaves/flute and Dupont/double bass and graphic score). The score is included on a separate card, where it's titled "one four for five"--not sure which is correct--and it seems fairly straightforward, each instrument having approximately timed sections in which to play with both graphic and written descriptions ("long notes", "what you want with rhythm", etc.). The result is thick and, not in a bad way, sluggish, like a viscous liquid. It's engaging enough, though marred, to my taste, by many of Chagas' contributions which tend toward a stale kind of free jazz playing that seems very much out of place here (though, I suppose, it might be exactly what Dupont wanted).

"nord" takes another sharp turn, consisting of field recordings (highway sounds, mostly), double bass and, most noticeably, an old vinyl recording of...I'm not sure what, but something along the lines of an East European brass band playing a kind of dirge (a doina?). Whatever, it's an unusual and enjoyable combination of sources, Dupont confining his sounds to commentary here and there, allowing the traffic and phonograph to define the terrain. Good piece, interesting and largely enjoyable album.

review by Richard Pinnell / Watchful Ear website:

Another new CDr from Jez riley French’s prolific Engraved Glass label, this one the tenth disc in

the .point engraved series which I think focuses on the work on other musicians. The disc is named One Hour North, and is the work of a French bassist/composer Bruno Duplant. The album contains three pieces, two of which clock in at between ten and fifteen minutes, either side of a lengthy forty minute central track. All of the pieces though are quite different.

The opening piece is named arras, une heur trente d’arrêt, and is a work that combines a single continuous field recording of what sounds like overheard conversations between children and an adult woman. (Maybe Duplant’s wife and children that are credited on the CD’s accompanying card? Just a guess) This recording is a little blurred, distant, the kind of thing you might imagine hearing on a summer’s day in the park. The voices speak in French, and they sound happy, but beyond this little can be ascertained. Over this field recording are layered tiny little buzzes and clicks and taps, originating from ’small objects’ and a radio. Occasionally the radio bursts into little patches of conversation, but it doesn’t stay with these for more than a fleeting moment. Then alongside all of this is layered a further recording, of a man whistling, somewhat aimlessly, vaguely melodically (I thought I could identify the tune in several places but never quite managed it). The overall effect of all of this is pleasing, a kind of murmuring drift of sound that feels like it does all belong together, even though clearly it doesn’t. I’m reminded, for some very bizarre reason of early hip hop production, where disparate samples would be overlaid to create a massed overall effect, only here the samples are twelve minutes long and aren’t looped. The effect is the same though, with a good compositional ear spotting how well the three elements would work together.

The second track is a different animal altogether. Its a realisation of a graphic score by Duplant (a small image of the score or part of it, is included with the release) The piece is named One four for five (who goes slowly goes) and is realised here by five musicians who each recorded their part separately, with the track then put together by overlaying the five parts. The musicians are Vanessa Rossetto, (viola with small motors) Paulo Chagas, (bass clarinet) Lee Noyes (inside and outside piano) Phil Hargreaves (flute) and Duplant himself playing double bass. The score dictates rough timings for loosely described events (’long notes’, ‘what you want with rhythm’, ‘noises’ etc…) The piece goes on for forty minutes and throughout it wanders all over the place. There are some very nice moments in there, with the piano and bass in particular standing out, but also some parts (notably often Chagas’ clarinet) that veer towards more melodic, even jazzy sensibilities. The problem with a work realised like this (and I am assuming that the five musicians had not heard each others’ contributions when they made their own) is that it takes all five musicians to be essentially on the same page as each other regarding mood and style, and if one or two wander off in a strong direction, as Chagas does here, it will stand out a mile. The score also clearly asks the musicians to “never play loud!!!” and here and there Chagas certainly seems to do this. I don’t mean to pick out one musician here but his contributions do stick out a little.

Overall, One four for five (who goes slowly goes) is OK, but it begins to tire somewhat over its lengthy duration, perhaps because of its meandering nature, which was in turn probably caused by the method of the track’s construction. This kind of thing is always brave, and its fascinating how such a project turns out, but here , while there are some nice passages the piece wanders about a little too much for my taste.

We then get a further piece, named Nord, which combines more murkily enigmatic field recordings, mostly grey-sounding recordings of traffic over wet roads- all very quiet and unassuming again), Duplant’s double bass and a recording of an old record player, playing something classical (for brass and piano I think?) but the sound is warped, slowed and coated in static. Duplant’s playing is very nice here, restrained to just little interjections here and there, often picking out tiny parts of the record playing, sometimes combining with the traffic, mostly bowed but with some knocks and plucks at dry strings here and there. This is a nice piece. In places the gramophone dominates a little too much for my liking, and I’d have liked to have heard the traffic coming through the mix a little stronger in places, but this is nit-picking as the piece is another excellent example of Duplant’s ear for combining seemingly disparate sounds.

Overall a mixed bag but with some lovely moments and a pointer towards a composer with a good ear for layering elements together. While I struggled a little with the central composed piece, and perhaps may have preferred more of the field recording / acoustic instrumentation juxtaposition in its place, this is a nice CD, the first I have heard from Duplant, who promises good things ahead.