Label: Creel Pone CP 253 CD

Derek Bailey、Steve Lacy、Noah Howard、Hyman Paul Bleyといった多くの巨匠勢との共演、そしてあの演劇騒音集団Un Drame Musical Instantaneのメンバーでもあった米ジャズ・ベーシストのKent Carter。本作は氏のキャリアからは想像出来ない、1986年に発表した唯一の電子音楽作品[Network]をCreel PoneがCD-R再発したもの。軽快なシーケンスが気持ち良いシンセポップから、もはやゲーム音楽に聞こえてしまうユニークなコンポジション、そしてバリバリと唸るダブルベース・ライブエレクトロニクスまでを披露する凄まじい振り幅のアルバム。メチャクチャ面白い一枚です。



Issued in 1986 as the 10th entrant in the Régis "Bernard Lamastre" Raymond Justin Marie Charles Delaye-helmed (see CP 199.12 for further context) French Library Discobole's (essentially a sub-label under Illustra-Son, tied to the eponymous Editions Régis DELAYE) "Treasures of Music" series, this seemingly improbable set of untethered, multi-rhythmic-cell Electronic music by the American Free Improvising Bassist Kent Carter cleanly presages much of the oncoming wave of asynchronous / decentralized "Dance" music of the mid-90s onwards by a good decade...

That the Derek Bailey / Carla / Paul Bley / Noah Howard / Robin Kenyatta / Steve Lacy sideman & Spontaneous Music Ensemble / Jazz Composer's Orchestra / Un Drame Musical Instantané member had the conceptual wherewithal in the early-mid-80s to lay down such an absurdly prescient suite of, essentially, "Deconstructed Electro" and then have it buried in this catalogue of "Sound Illustration For Radio-TV-Cinema" is somewhat criminal; that it incorporates an almost comically pitch-perfect timbre-set of gurning FM-synthesis & crispy analogue / digital percussion & even moreso, at times reminiscent of the Afro-Futurist synthesis of Francis Bebey & William Onyeabor (the "Globe" on the front cover putting the African Continent front & center is 👨‍🍳💋). The "Generative" assemblages sprinkled throughout cleanly mesh the whole League of Automatic Music Composers scene w/ the then-nascent BGM / Video Game score world in a super-appealing way, lending echoes of Wim Mertens / Soft Verdict's "For Amusement Only" & Joel Van Droogenbroeck's "Video Games & Data Movements" & there's even a pair of proper (if all-too-brief) Electro-Acoustic assemblages at the tail-end of each side!

Personally speaking, in the decades that I've been trawling the Library sector for interesting & unexpected productions (I've gone through maybe 500 titles since discovering this wonderful, often frustrating world of music a few-three decades back) I've only found a handful of things that have truly surprised me, and this is amongst the best & most rewarding; a simply unbelievable record that cleanly bridges the whole Ictus / Incus / Emanem world with IDK Mega Wave Orchestra, Joan Wildman Trio, and later the whole SND / Mark Fell axis.