By Fotis Nikolakopoulos
Using the voice as a main instrument is not something new obviously. Using
three voices (here by Gaelle Debra, Patrick Guionnet and Maryline Pruvost)
and a drum set (here by Peter Orins who runs Circum-Disc) is, even today
that everything has been done and experimented with, still a choice that
differentiates this cd from the experimental milieu, one that could even be
described as radical.
The voice of course still is the primary and easiest way for any human (and
non human) being to express itself. Modern pop culture and the eagerness of
the society of the spectacle for myths have created a clean cut version of
what the human voice should sound. Trying to overcome all this is not an
easy task. Quite the contrary I believe, such a choice of instrumentation
still raises many eye brows within the field of experimental music.
While listening to Master of Disorder it easily came to my mind Themroc, and
anarchic French movie from the early 70’s by director Claude Faraldo. There
the great Michel Piccoli plays a modern caveman who, rebelling against
modern society never talks, but only makes noises. Listening to this CD, the
listener can certainly and easily make comparisons.
But apart from the labeling of the music my aforementioned comparison
creates, all eight tracks of the cd are excursions into the unknown guts of
the human voice, with big doses of humor, laughter, joy and anger. Peter
Orins with his drumset play the role of the glue that holds this fragile
collision together, while, at the same time, he seems like the shaman that
initiates the ritual.
The music, if you want to call it like that, on Master of Disorder, is far
away from almost everything that is considered experimental nowadays, but
heavily incorporates magic words like freedom and improvisation. In each
track I had the cathartic feeling of being totally unable to comprehend
where this would go next. The combination of the sheer power by the three
vocalists and their willingness to experiment in every second of the cd make
it a joyous but also so urgently needed recording that goes against any
kind of mannerism.
The CD came out really late in 2024 (bad for me I didn’t review it earlier)
and I listened to it in 2025. So, it has every right to fit in my best of
for 2025. And it will.
Listen here:
@koultouranafigo