Jean Cohen-Solal - Flutes Libres & Captain Tarthopom (2003) [FLAC] {MIO-025}
"Jean Cohen-Solal was a little-known figure in the French underground progressive moment. His peculiar, arty experiments in rock, classical, jazz, and the avant-garde earned him a tiny cult following in the 1970s, when he recorded a brilliant pair of solo albums, and not much more after that. Now, thanks to this two-fer reissue of both Cohen-Solal solo records on one CD, his music is once again readily available. For fans of progressive, genre-melting albums with a sense of whimsy and humor as well as a strong undercurrent of rock toughness, this is required listening.
Cohen-Solal’s main instrument is the flute, and the nine-minute introductory track on his 1971 debut Flute Libres, “Concierto Cyclique,” proves just how many different sounds the man can get out of his woodwind. Supported by a charging, adaptable rhythm section, the group leader whips out massive solos, starting first with a clean, natural sound that slips into the gaps in the sparse opening percussion. As the song builds in furor and the band lays down a funky groove, Cohen-Solal applies various processing techniques to his flute until it becomes a scorching electric current whizzing and whirring over the track.
Two short, eclectic tracks follow this epic, melding Middle Eastern and Indian motifs with Cohen-Solal’s jaunty, breathy flute playing, but these are really just the warm-up for the album’s fourth and final track, the 17-minute “Quelqu’un.” This piece is a dark and somber whirlwind of sounds, like the musique concrete of Stockhausen or Cage as interpreted by a live band. Birdsong flute sounds whistle perkily over cymbal scrapes, subtle rhythmic clatters, and a foreboding atmosphere of gloom. It’s a hypnotic and spooky track that sometimes gets a little boring over its long length, but ultimately delivers as a mood-setter.
But as strong as Flute Libres was, it has nothing on the follow-up album, released just two years later in 1973. In the intervening time, Cohen-Solal seemed to have completely changed tactics, further honing his musical and compositional skills. Captain Tarthopom (it’s much, much better than the title implies) is an upbeat marching band simulacrum where the previous album was dark and moody. The title track and “Ludions” are the perfect opening pair for this album. The former is a jazz march parody that layers high-pitched whistling flute over a muted trumpet and slow, rolling drum hits. The latter song has a rough Krautrock groove, with a dense bass rumble, hollow-sounding percussion, and gritty guitars, with which Cohen-Solal’s sweet, repetitive melody seems to be competing for control as it fades forward and back in the mix.
The album contains plenty more surprises for those caught up in its addictive, surreal big band vortex. “Memories D’un Ventricule” is one of Cohen-Solal’s best songs, a ten-minute funeral march with a pulse-pounding drum beat, spooky church organ, atonal horns, and rattling percussive sounds. The song slowly sucks you into its creepy world, until the organs take over with a ghostly drone and howls from unidentifiable horns rise up from the background. On the other end of the spectrum is “Intime Panique,” just under three minutes of delicate melodic lines harmonizing over a simple bass rhythm; multiple flute tracks are overlaid, combining with the squawk of a trombone on the lower end. It’s a deceptively simple song, but its melody is actually one of the most complex and satisfying on the album, revealing new layers and intricacies with each listen.
Though the daring Captain Tarthopom is clearly the better album of these two, both of Cohen-Solal’s solo outings are well-crafted works of experimental genre synthesis. This is a progressive voice who deserves to be mentioned in the same voice as Faust, Henry Cow, and other European innovators from the 1970s."
Ed Howard, Stylus Magazine
Tracklisting:
Flutes Libres
1 Concerto Cyclique (9:04)
2 Raga Du Matin (3:59)
3 Matiere (2:25)
4 Quelqu'un (17:10)
Captain Tarthopom
5 Captain Tarthopom (3:02)
6 Ludions (4:41)
7 Ab Hoc Et Ab Hac (5:22)
8 Intime Panique (2:40)
9 Memories D'un Ventricule (10:01)
10 Fossette Surprise (4:44)
11 Quelqu'un 2003 (7:00)
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