Joue sa musique

Bise de Buse are a little-known French band that released only one album some six years after their inception, right before calling it quits. By the time the sessions for Joue Sa Musique were held, this onetime quintet had boiled down to a trio featuring sax (Pierre Michel), cello (Jean Bataillon), and piano (Laurent Spielmann). The main musical direction here is a cross between early Art Zoyd's chamber music and the exuberance of National Health. More precisely, Bise de Buse tapped into the Canterbury ethos and gave it an acoustic twist. The total absence of a rhythm section evacuates the rock idiom, leaving only a tension between contemporary classical and jazz leanings. The results are surprisingly strong, to a point where one wishes the band had been able to better record the album (a bit of hiss, clumsy editing within tracks) and keep going after its release. The first three tracks present all the trio's different sides: Michel's "Dodécaféiné" is very Soft Machine-esque, with jazzy licks; Spielmann's "Valse à 5 Temps" has more of a National Health/Henry Cow feel to it, while Bataillon's "Triton Diabolique" is both more classical in essence and aggressive in nature. Two of these tracks also feature guests Louis Merlet on violin and Gong saxman Didier Malherbe. Michel's "Les Lumières de la Nuit" is an overdubbed sax trio, a compelling tour de force. The original album contained a cover of Caravan/Delivery keyboardist Stephen Miller's "Chocolate Fields." This reissue adds an alternate take of "Valse à 5 Temps" and four demo recordings from 1979. Back then, the group was a jazzier five-piece with Michel, Spielmann, and founding guitarist Gérard Dosdat, plus Jean-Louis Heitz on bass and Maxime Malka on drums. "Errance" is a pretty inoffensive jazz fusion tune. More interesting are the group's formative takes on Soft Machine's "Kings and Queens" and Gong's "You Can't Kill Me." The sound quality is pretty poor on these demos, but the main feature attraction of Joue Sa Musique is the unique blend the trio had achieved between the most progressive currents in progressive rock. ~ François Couture, Rovi