Guitares Dérive
Encyclopedia
The Guitares Dérive duo was formed in Paris in 1974 by Vincent Le Masne and Bertrand Porquet co-composers and interpreters of their own original music on two classical guitars. Rapidly classified into the American "repetitive" category of that same period, their music nonetheless stands out by virtue of its writing, which avoids all systematisation in the repetition of musical phrases, but on the contrary constantly unfolds in the form of works entirely written, and of quite long duration.
In the newspaper le Monde
, Jacques Lonchampt spoke of the "exhilarating character of this music, in which two expressions, the one rhythmical and obsessive, the other melodic and symbolic, merge and drift according to a principle of infinitesimal variations, to take us, eventually, quite far from where we started out. These variations testify to great rigour, yet also to a keen sense of harmonic sequence, that is both highly daring and acoustically dynamic."
Discovered by Daniel Caux, journalist and radio presenter, specializing in this kind of music, they performed numerous concerts, before recording the 1976 album Guitares Dérive for Shandar
, a cult label par excellence set up in 1971 by gallery owner Chantal Darcy in collaboration with Daniel Caux as artistic director, whose catalogue includes, amongst others, albums by American minimalists like Terry Riley
, Steve Reich
, La Monte Young
, Phil Glass... as well as jazz musicians Albert Ayler
, Sun Ra
and Cecil Taylor
.
The album Guitares Dérive is a studio album recorded live by two 22 year-old musicians. "The acoustic instrument at its purest, yet imbued with great modernity. A pointillist music made up of a surge of interwoven notes which seem to multiply, although no re-recording was used" in the words of Jean-Marc Bailleux of Rock & Folk
magazine.
"Vincent Le Masne et Bertrand Porquet do not, as some tend to do, place complexity in the foreground in the guise of quality, as an alibi, as a mere cover for vacuity. Their approach is the very opposite: to present us with simplicity in which complexity lies hidden."
Daniel Caux
The album Guitares Dérive has been reissued by Fractal Records
in May 2010, now available for the first time on CD, in a Digipack edition.
In the newspaper le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
, Jacques Lonchampt spoke of the "exhilarating character of this music, in which two expressions, the one rhythmical and obsessive, the other melodic and symbolic, merge and drift according to a principle of infinitesimal variations, to take us, eventually, quite far from where we started out. These variations testify to great rigour, yet also to a keen sense of harmonic sequence, that is both highly daring and acoustically dynamic."
Discovered by Daniel Caux, journalist and radio presenter, specializing in this kind of music, they performed numerous concerts, before recording the 1976 album Guitares Dérive for Shandar
Shandar
Shandar was a French record label specializing in avant-garde material that did seminal work during the 1970 releasing, among others, recordings by Albert Ayler, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Sunny Murray, Philip Glass, Charlemagne Palestine, La Monte Young, Alan Silva, Pandit Pran Nath,...
, a cult label par excellence set up in 1971 by gallery owner Chantal Darcy in collaboration with Daniel Caux as artistic director, whose catalogue includes, amongst others, albums by American minimalists like Terry Riley
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
, Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, La Monte Young
La Monte Young
La Monte Thornton Young is an American avant-garde composer, musician, and artist.Young is generally recognized as the first minimalist composer. His works have been included among the most important and radical post-World War II avant-garde, experimental, and contemporary music. Young is...
, Phil Glass... as well as jazz musicians Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.Ayler was among the most primal of the free jazz musicians of the 1960s; critic John Litweiler wrote that "never before or since has there been such naked aggression in jazz" He possessed a deep blistering tone—achieved...
, Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...
and Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
.
The album Guitares Dérive is a studio album recorded live by two 22 year-old musicians. "The acoustic instrument at its purest, yet imbued with great modernity. A pointillist music made up of a surge of interwoven notes which seem to multiply, although no re-recording was used" in the words of Jean-Marc Bailleux of Rock & Folk
Rock & Folk
Rock & Folk is a prominent French popular music magazine founded in 1966, and published in the Paris suburb of Clichy. Its current editor in chief in Philippe Manœuvre. Though the magazine's title includes the word "folk," it is in fact oriented strongly toward rock and roll, especially championing...
magazine.
"Vincent Le Masne et Bertrand Porquet do not, as some tend to do, place complexity in the foreground in the guise of quality, as an alibi, as a mere cover for vacuity. Their approach is the very opposite: to present us with simplicity in which complexity lies hidden."
Daniel Caux
The album Guitares Dérive has been reissued by Fractal Records
Fractal Records
Fractal Records is an independent French label created in September 1994, eclectic, focused on rock music, jazz, psychedelic, modern, avant-garde, free, punk, experimental, and especially that of Japan. He set up firstly a mail order catalogue "Sinusoïde" before starting his production work in 1997...
in May 2010, now available for the first time on CD, in a Digipack edition.