When French saxophonist Sébastien Branche and Basque sound artist Miguel A. García were playing shows all around Europe in 2015, the latter made a proposal to Polish musicians Wojtek Kurek (Paper Cuts, Warten) and Mateusz Wysocki (Fischerle, Bouchons D’oreilles) to meet and record an improvised session during their visit in Warsaw, Poland. Their meeting gave birth to “Harigams”, a unique piece comprised of precise electro-acoustic sound crafting.

credits

released May 1, 2016

Sébastien Branche – saxophone and objects
Miguel A. García – electronics + jen brio
Wojtek Kurek – drums
Mateusz Wysocki – laptop, field recordings

mix – Mateusz Stolnicki (Boazeria Studio)
mastering – Jacek Szczepanek

[This] release is the result of a European tour by saxophonist Sébastien Branche and
Miguel A. García, playing electronics and jen brio, and by the time they arrived in Warsaw
they did a recording session with Wojtek Kurek (from Paper Cuts and Warten; drums) and
Mateusz Wysocki (Fischerle, Bouchons D’oreilles; laptop, field recordings), which resulted
in this forty-five minute release, the two parts that make up ‘Harigams’. It is quite a fine
balance between two players of ‘real’ instruments and two players of electronics, which in
the music shines through nicely. The saxophone is an instrument we hear in the background
making long sustaining sounds, whereas Kurek plays his drums very sparsely. The four of
them prefer to keep the music firmly in a more abstract sound field, clustering all the sounds
together, leaving very little air to breath for the music, but that seems very well to be the
intention of this. It all moves inside a world of electro-acoustic music, and some of it happens
to be acoustic instruments. My favourite side is the second one, in which everything appears
to be even more closely together, hermetically sealed off and to be a form of acoustic drone
music. One excellent side to another piece of fine music one on the other side. (FdW)
On Vital Weekly

 

A cloistered electro-acoustic soundscape that bends familiar everyday sounds into disquieting fragments of auditory illusion that slowly form from aleatoric visitations into rhythmic superstructure. A meeting of likeminded experimental artists existing in each other’s sonic space and pushing record. An exercise in extreme frequencies and marathon-level patience on the A-side collaboration and straight from the gate collaborative intensity of the B-Side. Harigrams is the work of French saxophonist Sébastien Branche who can bend and mold his instrument into unrecognizable pretzels of auxiliary breath placement and sustained tones, Basque sound artist Miguel A. García who utilizes electronics and the Jen Brio keyboard to provide auditory shadings ghost-like tonal fragmentation. The two met up with Warsaw-based drummer Wojtek Kurek and field recording artist Mateusz Wysocki to create a 42 minute improvised piece of music that creates worlds inside worlds, sustained electronic droning folding in on itself while every instrument disguises itself into something so far outside of itself it takes a furious reading of the line-up to attempt to understand the sound source. A vital and compelling exploration of collective improvisation and collaborative sound-sculpting.
On Tome to the Weather Machine