Live at "Les Instants Chavires" [Live]

Evan Parker | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 23, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Leo Records UK
• ASIN: B00001NFN7
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #826,982 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars too much computer output, not enough musical input, June 22, 2005

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Live at "Les Instants Chavires" (Audio CD)

This looks promising -- Evan Parker with the quirky, imaginative French guitarist Noel Akchote, joined by Lawrence Casserly and Joel Ryan with realtime computer processing. It's a 1997 live recording from the Paris club Les Instants Chavires, released by Leo in 1998.

Unfortunately, it's not nearly as good as it promises to be. The first problem is that EP and Akchote barely play together at all. Instead, there are two tracks with EP (one with Ryan, one with both Casserly and Ryan), three tracks with Akchote (one with Ryan, one with Casserly, and one with both), and only one track, the last, with all four together. The other problem is that a balance is not often struck between the instruments and their processing -- the processing overwhelms the original "inputs" with massive, frequently uninteresting outputs. Akchote manages somewhat better than Parker to create periodically interesting exchanges with his processing partner that actually sound like a creative dialogue.

For much better realizations of this technological potential, see any of the three recordings of Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble -- TOWARD THE MARGINS (1997), DRAWN INWARD (1999), and the live MEMORY/VISION (2004) -- see my reviews of all three.