L'album vert by Dans les arbres

l’album vert

‘L’album vert’ is a compilation of asynchronous steps for an imaginary dance floor. A strange but amusing place were eyes listen in and ears peek around. Glass breaks, someone stumbles, something always happens. The dancers inevitably hop to moments of tension of which they free themselves again and again.

Almost always there is some kind of beat. Not the kind of beat that makes the hips wiggle, but rather the pulse of a crooked factory or a quirky steam engine that drives much more than four elements.
On this peculiar conveyor belt the stamping and punching and whistling never rests.
The sound on ‘l’album vert’ is not a blanket, but a net full of holes.
The collective does not become one, it becomes many. Sounds seem separated, they do not touch and do not merge, they communicate through the air in between.
Once more, ‘l’album vert’ shows that Dans les arbres has a signature style, although more electronic instruments and experimental recording techniques have been used in comparison to earlier work.


Dans les arbres is a long-term improvisational relationship between a Frenchman and three Norwegians.
Clarinettist Xavier Charles, pianist Christian Wallumrød, guitarist Ivar Grydeland and percussionist Ingar Zach recorded their first album in 2006.
It was released as ‘Dans Les Arbres’ (ECM 2008), followed by ‘Canopée’ (ECM 2012), ‘Phosphorescence’ (Hubro 2017), ‘Volatil’ (SOFA 2019), ‘Mausoleum’ (self-released on Bandcamp 2019), ‘Dans les arbres + Yumiko Tanaka - Live in Tokyo’ (self-released on Bandcamp 2020).

Their peculiar sound world had been constructed over twenty years.
Dans les arbres has become a true collective that excels in spontaneous group composing, deploying a range of unorthodox extended techniques.

Dans les arbres performed with musicians such as Yumiko Tanaka, Otomo Yoshihide, Jim O‘Rourke, Vilde & Inga and The Norwegian Wind Ensemble. The band was nominated for the prestigious Nordic Music Prize in 2015.

Dans les arbres is an improvising ensemble comprising French clarinettist Xavier Charles and the three Norwegians pianist Christian Wallumrød, guitarist Ivar Grydeland, and percussionist Ingar Zach.

Their world of sounds and the fine sense of communication, lead to collective playing and spontaneous group-composing named to be in a “class of its own”.

danslesarbres.net
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