Violeta García / Émilie Girard-Charest – Impermanence

1. I (5:57)
2. II (13:23)
3. III (7:43)
4. IV (7:30)
5. V (7:17)

· Violeta García: cello
· Émilie Girard-Charest: cello

All music by Violeta García & Émilie Girard-Charest (SOCAN)
Recorded by Carlos Quebrada at Ideo Music Studio in Buenos Aires, Argentina in October 2019
Mixed and mastered by Carlos Quebrada
Cover linocut artworks by Nina Normand
Photos by Celes Rojas Mugica (García) & Dom Garcia (Girard-Charest)
Graphic design by László Szakács
Produced by Éric Normand & László Juhász

Released: June 2021 / first edition of 300 cds, in co-production with Tour de Bras
Direct purchase: Bandcamp / Discogs

GALLERY ↓

REVIEWS ↓

“When choosing a title for an audio document of improvised music, you really can’t go wrong with Impermanence; it’s not exactly original, in terms of either the specific genre or music as a whole, but it will never not be accurate. In the case of Violeta García (a cofounder of the splendid TVL Rec imprint) and Émilie Girard-Charest’s first meeting as a duo, the word accumulates a more unique meaning because of the two musicians’ chosen instruments. Cellos are often associated with their ability to emit sustained, ‘eternal’ tones, and are utilized as such in anything from acoustic drone music old and new to traditional classical and chamber accompaniments. But in García’s and Girard-Charest’s hands they frequently become anything but eternal, instead acting as boundless surfaces for all sorts of extended technique scrabble, auxiliary object play, short stilted bowings, and barely-there below-the-bridge vapors. Despite the differences between the two artists’ careers (García operates almost entirely within improvisational contexts, while Girard-Charest primarily performs solo and ensemble compositions) their musical interplay is superb; some of the best moments of their interactions surface when both take a step back from volume and intensity and deal in quiet timbral harmonies of scrape and rustle, but the louder stretches are excellent too, especially the high-octane tense trills and punchy pizzicato plunks of segment III, which in turn dissolve into and rematerialize from their own forms of sonic reticence. And the near-apocalyptic resin-shredding of V is simply breathtaking. To think that my first reaction when I found this release was, Two cellos? Yeah, right.” / Jack Davidson, Noise Not Music, 6 July 2021

“Deux violoncellistes provenant du Canada et impliquées dans la mouvance du label collectif Tour de Bras, lequel entame une édition conjointe avec le label slovène Inexhaustible Editions dont je vous entretiens au fil de ses (très) intéressantes parutions. Cinq improvisations illustrant soniquement les ressources sonores et vibratoires de deux violoncelles en symbiose. I – II – III – IV – V pour 5:57 – 13:23 – 7:43 – 7:30 – 7:17). Très remarquable duo qu’on peut faire tourner à l’envi sur le lecteur CD en diffusant les échappées et mises en commun auditives et ludiques créant des formes musicales aussi pertinentes et fascinantes les unes que les autres. Ça zig-zague, s’imbrique, chante à l’unisson, sature la vibration, s’entre choque, frappe col legno, rebondit, sursaute, dérappe, mordille, grince… L’empathie entre les deux musiciennes se situe au zénith. J’avais déjà profité joyeusement d’un super Quatuor d’Occasion où Émilie Girard-Charest excellait aux côtés de Malcolm Golstein, Joshua Zubot et Jean René (violons, alto et cello). Vous avez bien lu : Malcolm Goldstein ! Joshua Zubot est le violoniste de choix de Tristan Honsinger au sein d’In The Sea… hum ! Donc, si vous avez quelques considérations pour les recherches violonistiques de l’éminent Dr Johannes Rosenberg, Impermanence sera pour vous un album de première bourre, un talisman précieux et le moyen de passer des instants délicieux et roboratifs question spleen morose engendré par cette pandémie qui n’en finit pas. La création libre contemporaine par excellence. Félicitations encore à László Juhász pour initier cette collaboration musicale outre-atlantique entre le Québec et la Slovénie. On pourra lui commander des albums d’Amérique du Nord en restant au sein de l’U.E. et éviter frais de douane et TVA abusifs.” / Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Orynx-improv’andsounds, 9 September 2021

RADIO PLAYS ↓

· Pattern Dissection at Cashmere Radio, Berlin, 28 August 2021