Christophe Chassol developed his audio-visual ultrascores as a method for harmonizing and symphonizing real life – the ‘here and now’ – starting out in Creole-speaking New Orleans (‘Nola Chérie’, 2011) before pursuing its route through India (‘Indiamore’, 2013).
In March 2014, Chassol set out for Martinique – his family’s birthplace in the West Indies – which, for him, epitomised everything he dreamt of expressing, from the purely personal to the perfectly panoptic. Accompanied by production sound mixer Marie-France Barrier and sound engineer Johann Levasseur, the trio filmed and recorded a myriad of extraordinary encounters and created a highly evocative documentary that was to become the matrix of ‘Big Sun’.
Back in France, he composed, edited, rehearsed and created the 27 tracks of a 70-minute West Indian odyssey: a weaveworld of vast field recordings ranging from birdsong to Pipo Gertrude’s whistling, Joby Bernabés’ poetry (and a tête-à-tête with a female mountain-dweller), Sissido and Samak’s rap, Mario Masse’s flute and the Fort de France Carnival. The organic sounds of conch shell echoes and the music of the ocean to the hullabaloo of a game of dominos further serve to create an entire world blended by the artistry of Chassol.
It is clear with each new release that he continues to revolutionize his harmonic language: refashioning tracks that are composed around three unvarying chords, Chassol wraps his elaborate fabric around immutable melodies. Just like in an optical effect, his voice never deviates yet seems to change, to evolve through exceptionally intricate variations in chords and combinations of sound to unique effect.
The same holds true for rhythms, where Chassol flirts with the metrics and the bars composed with equated fluidity. Nothing is standardized yet everything appears to be so, elegantly veiling the complexity of his effortless technical brilliance. There’s no metronome and no sequencer: everything is played as the words, sounds, birdsong and Chassol’s inner music unfold. Lawrence Clais, drummer on the previous albums, remains part of the adventure and is joined, along the way, by Mienniel on the flute, vocalist Alice Lewis and Bertrand Burgalat on bass.
A natural talent, Chassol’s approach to his artistry has seen him collaborate with the likes of Frank Ocean, Laurie Anderson, Terry Riley and Gilles Peterson.
Now, Chassol invites us on a strange yet superbly organized journey of discovery, illustrating a Martinique that shatters clichés, codes and musical genres, showcasing an interpretation of reality that forms a true musical masterpiece. Available both digitally and on physical CD and vinyl, each copy will also come with a download to the full audio-visual release.
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