LOUIS SCLAVIS

LOUIS SCLAVIS
LA MOITIE DU MONDE (2007)
320 KBPS

On his recent releases, the French clarinettist/saxophonist Louis Sclavis has offered heartfelt tributes to Charles Mingus (Napoli's Walls), improvisations with a classical sax ensemble (L'Engrenage) and a voyage into funk, electronic and ambient music (L'imparfait des Langues). Sclavis's albums are all breathtakingly different. His latest is no exception: it's two CDs' worth of brief pieces played with expanded groups, documenting the prolific composer's work for theatre and film. Sclavis is a gifted melodist, and though improvisation is secondary on the 40 pieces here, his tonal subtlety, rhythmic inventiveness and Ellingtonesque imagination as an ensemble writer make these pieces charming, surprising and occasionally disconcerting. There are Gypsy dances, gliding waltzes and laid-back tangos, light-stepping oompah themes, soft funk against sighing strings hooks, even a jiving New Orleans bluesiness to La Mobylette Bleue. The pumping Dia Dia could be a John Surman solo feature for bass clarinet, and Sclavis's swooping clarinet over the didgeridoo-like sound of the lower-pitched woodwind creates an unfolding drama on Pour Sarkis. Most of the music is song-structured, but there are occasional rumbling, gurgly, semi-abstract soundscapes, such as the rich and collectively jazzy Le Monstre Dans la Forêt. Regular Sclavis partners, such as the soulful and earthy trumpeter Jean-Luc Cappozzo and the eloquent accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier, make the composer's rich-hued writing and playing all the more colourful.

Disc 1
1. La vie des autres
2. La vie des autres valse
3. Dia Dia part 1
4. Dia Dia part 2
5. Après lui
6. Vivre me tue
7. Sables
8. Grand comme le monde quatuor
9. Grand comme le monde
10. La Mairie
11. Java des prés
12. Sur la paille
13. Télémarche
14. Rag for Bill
15. L'Usine
16. Horizon
17. Adio Mamma
18. Ligne de fuite
19. Les heures lentes
20. La Valse du Parc
21. Cité city citta program

Disc 2
1. La mobylette bleue
2. Hymne bulgare
3. Pour Sarkis
4. Plus beau que jamais
5. Givre
6. La vie ouverte
7. Marche d'Electre
8. Le deuil sied à Electre
9. Les colonnes blanches
10. Nandri
11. De Lorient à Pondichery
12. Zitto
13. Zitto marche
14. Pueblo Lejano
15. Automne
16. Automne valse
17. Le rêve de Jean
18. Le monstre dans la forêt
19. Cité city citta program