Search - Noël Akchoté :: Rien

Electro-acoustic ambient weirdness to die for

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 04/15/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My tastes are so all over the map, sometimes I think I'm musically schizoid. I mean, how can one like Brian Wilson and Curlew? Nels Cline and Bobby Watson? Cooper-Moore and Onaje Allan Gumbs?



So here we've got Noel Akchote. I think he's a Brit, but I'm not sure. (Checked the web; turns out he's French. Fits, somehow.) He's played on some important Sam Rivers discs. He's released a duo disc with Marc Ribot--somehow mystically fitting. And he's been on the scene for 20-some years.



What's he sound like here? Mephisto on Quaaludes. OK. That's stupid. And archly obscure. How about, then, Alva Noto meets Eugene Chadbourne channeled through some dumb-weird Steve Beresford vibe?



Look.



I'm trying. Really, I am.



How about Steve Tibbetts encountering Brian Eno? And that whacked-out trumpet player's on board--I forget his name--the guy who did that disc with Jacky Terrasson and Ry Cooder, plays real breathy, only he's playing guitar, not trumpet. Know who I mean?



Jon Hassell. It just came to me.



Are you at all getting the picture? Probably not, because not even I am.



All's I know, is this is my fave rave right now. This and Bugge Wesseltoft's Moving.



Check 'em out."