track listing
égrenages et pelage l fouilles et rongement l estocade et coulées l reliefs de repas l voies et allures

Pascal Battus rotating surfaces / surfaces rotatives (*)
Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour alto saxophone

Recorded by Etienne Foyer on 26th may 2009

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(*) Les surfaces rotatives ne sont pas un un instrument prédéfini mais relèvent plutôt d'une chaîne opératoire variable composée de trois éléments plus ou moins différenciés. Les excitateurs, généralement issus des mécanismes de vieux Walkmans et constitués de petits plateaux mis en mouvement par des moteurs électriques sur lesquels viennent réagir vibrateurs et résonateurs tels que feuilles de papier, carton, plastique, métal, bois, fragments de polystyrène, gobelets, tiges et cymbales.

Rotating surfaces consist of small motorised components from inside old Walkmans, used as exciters on different objects reacting as vibrators and resonators : sheets of paper, cardboards, plastic, wooden, metal, polystyrene pieces, and stems connected to cymbals.

A l’écoute ce disque, me revient une conversation avec le saxophoniste Michel Doneda, il y a une bonne dizaine d’année, en marge du festival Jazz à Luz, où il venait de jouer un duo magnifique avec le chanteur Beñat Achiary. Il y était question de l’influence des musiques électroniques sur le jeu du saxophoniste et de son approche globale du son. Or, même si il n’y a ici aucune trace d’électronique, je suis frappé par la fusion sonore opérée par Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour et Pascal Battus. Le site du label Potlatch nous donne plus d’information sur ces surfaces rotatives utilisées par Pascal Battus. Si cette lutherie est pour le moins concrète, on est d’abord frappé par la parenté sonore avec les dispositifs électroniques couramment utilisés aujourd’hui. Néanmoins après une écoute attentive, la profonde originalité de ce dispositif aux possibilités probablement infinies se révèle. Les sons créés par Pascal Battus s’échappent de l’artifice et viennent rencontrer la réalité même du saxophone. Quant à Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour, son jeu crée des textures, des clapotements liquides, et épouse admirablement ce dispositif électro-acoustique. J’en viens parfois à me demander qui des deux musiciens produit tel ou tel son. La fusion est totale et l’objet admirablement original.
Pour finir, voici un extrait d’une improvisation des deux musiciens au festival Angelica 2010.
Free's Silence Blog l Septembre 2010

Munis d’outils aussi différents qu’ils se révèlent complémentaires, deux investigateurs du son à l’oreille aiguisée s’improvisent paléontologues d’un jour. En remuant scrupuleusement ciel et terre pour mettre à jour un univers de détails, ils dévoilent autant l’éclat de leurs découvertes que la minutie de leur approche.
On s’arrête d’abord sur la pochette de ce disque : une étrange tapisserie champêtre où des cervidés diaphanes errent tranquillement à travers un sous-bois. On s’interroge ensuite sur son titre qui, désignant des empreintes fossilisées, conserve tout son mystère même si l’on y décèlerait volontiers la trace d’un manifeste musical. Un qui consisterait à sculpter en creux, à circonscrire plutôt que décrire, à appréhender une complexité corporelle en en livrant moins qu’une esquisse. On se réjouit enfin de voir collaborer de manière inédite deux musiciens dont on souhaite encore voir les discographies respectives s’étoffer. Dans la lignée de ses dispositifs non homologués (on se souvient de son usage très personnel du pick-up : « le microphone de la guitare enfin débarrassé d’elle »), Pascal Battus frotte à présent feuilles de papier, plaques de métal, bouts de bois, gobelets en plastic, blocs de polystyrène et autres cymbales contre des petits plateaux tournants entraînés par des moteurs électriques. Les sons produits par ces « surfaces rotatives » sont confrontés à ceux non moins radicaux propulsés par le saxophone alto de Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour.
Aussi éloignés soient-ils dans leur mécanique, les deux instruments/dispositifs parviennent à explorer des palettes étonnamment voisines et on se trouve souvent confondu lorsqu’il s’agit de distinguer la provenance de telle stridulation ou de tel vrombissement dans ces improvisations grouillantes d’activité. Cet écosystème sonore, dont l’existence semble attestée par la métaphore animalière filée le long de ces cinq titres, renferme manifestement un point d’eau qui attire anophèles et pachydermes. Des herbes hautes et des rochers moussus font également partie du paysage ; le vent, surtout, change de directions à chaque instant : bourrasques imprévisibles ou puissants tourbillonnements. La saxophoniste concentre son souffle avec une détermination absolue sur des matières qui sont pulvérisées en éclats nets, déployant une intensité qui rappelle celle du jeu de Stéphane Rives (y aurait-il un truc propre aux improvisateurs de l’axe Beyrouth-Paris ?). Produisant des textures non moins astringentes, les machines tournantes de son acolyte évoquent aussi bien des membranes de coléoptères qu’une scie circulaire, poussant un peu plus loin la polyphonie. La convergence harmonique atteint parfois l’unisson dans des passages particulièrement tendus, qui miment sans le savoir le comportement de certains moustiques capables de synchroniser la fréquence de leurs battements d’ailes lors de certains rituels d’approche. A l’évidence, lorsque insectes ou musiciens sont (littéralement) sur la même longueur d’onde, ça s’entend et le plaisir n’en est que davantage partagé.
Jean-Claude Gevrey l Scala Tympani l Juillet 2010

Un disque peut parfois révéler un monde : celui de Christine Sehnaoui et Pascal Battus méritait qu’on l’entende. Aidé d’un manuel d’ichnologie (l’art de tirer des conclusions scientifiques des traces laissées par tout être vivant derrière lui), qui décidera de s’y pencher trouvera en Ichnites bien plus que de simples empreintes : des preuves de l’existence d’un microcosme en développement. Ce microcosme à la structure improvisée mais cohérente est l’œuvre d’une saxophoniste réfléchie et d’un guitariste ayant développé ses techniques étendues au point de jouer ici de « surfaces rotatives » qu’il a confectionnées avec d’anciens éléments de walkmans – l’ancêtre du baladeur MP3 étant une autre ichnite de taille. Ce microcosme vous attire en usant des charmes des premiers sons qu’il laisse échapper et vous enferme ensuite dans des constructions au sein desquelles s’engouffrent le vent et l’eau, et où le bruit commandé par le plus petit geste est répercuté, toujours à volume amplifié. Mais le voyage n’est pas seulement agressif, il guide parfois l’invité jusqu’à des plages circonspectes, qu’elles soient jardin zen ou salle d’attente, avant de le mener sur une esplanade où Christine Sehnaoui et Pascal Battus sonneront l’heure d’un carnaval de sifflements et de tremblements expressifs. Aussi abstraites soient-elles, les découvertes faites par l’auditeur dans ce paysage parsemé d’empreintes sont irrévocables : les mondes parallèles existent et il est même possible de les explorer en musique.
Guillaume Belhomme l Les Inrockuptibles l Juin 2010

Jacques Attali dans Bruits avançait l'idée de petites structures domestiques de production-diffusion se substituant aux mastodontes de la musique. L'histoire a confirmé cette hypothèse. Pensons à l’avant-gardiste Glenn Gould délaissant les concerts pour monter Bach en studio, bout par bout, avec le meilleur de chaque prise.
De fait, les pertes entre la matrice et la copie, entre l'objet et l'œuvre, le pop et l' art se sont drastiquement réduites. Un bon dispositif d’audition peut supplanter le concert (interprétation forcée, absence de liberté de l’auditeur concernant le choix du moment et de la durée), devenir un moment privilégié, une approche “active” des œuvres concentrées ou mixées avec les sons ambiants, équalisés, amplifiés, spatialisés sur mesure.
Ichnites avec ses micros et ses amplificateurs ne dira pas le contraire! Pascal Battus officie aux moteurs de walkman pour entraîner des objets, les fouetter, passant du rythme à la texture avec grâce; Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour à l'alto parkérien grossit les petites souillures mécaniques, le tourbillon du souffle et les clapotements mouillés de l’embouchure; elle gifle l’anche, tressaille des doigts, mâche l’ébonite (entre autres). Ses sifflements cisaillent délicieusement le tympan, poussant la transduction cochléenne aux extrêmes de la lymphe apicale.
Cliquetis mécaniques, sons grinçants, périodiques, ronflettes, roulis aquatiques, cuivrés, drones tressés aux grains du tuyau poumoné, l’alto se dévoilant fugitivement en surplomb d’une électronique agitée.
Le duo produit une flore luxuriante de timbres servie par un “timing”, une écoute mutuelle sans faille qui place Ichnites au meilleur de l’improvisation “non-idiomatique”.
Arnold Schönberg a dit que la hauteur est "le timbre mesuré dans une seule direction…"; l'amplitude en est une autre, "la sensation variant au fil du logarithme…" d’un tableau sonore infini.
Bravo à Potlatch qui continue envers et contre tout, loin de l’industrie, un parcours sans faute, unique dans les labels français de musique contemporaine superground !
PS Superground est un qualitatif forgé par l’artiste André du Colombier à partir du mot taupinesque, usé et surtout récupéré à toutes les sauces, d’underground.
Boris Wlassof l Revue & Corrigée l Juin 2010

Sous un titre judicieux, ce recueil « d’empreintes » posées en mai 2009 développe, en cinq chapitres (eux en revanche alourdis d’intitulés descriptifs), tout un art de la gravure en taille-douce : pointe sèche, eau-forte, Pascal Battus (surfaces rotatives) et Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour (saxophone alto) dressent de petits manèges éoliens, bruts – on pense à celui de Petit Pierre, à la Fabuloserie – et très savamment sophistiqués.
Si le premier, sur ses plateaux (pas des platines ! plutôt les tours de quelque potier sonique), façonne matériaux hétéroclites et espaces auditifs, la seconde emporte (au-delà de la rhétorique salivaire désormais établie) son alto concret, fluide, flûté dans des contrées que ni Denley ni Bosetti n’ont épuisées. Tout « étendus » qu’ils soient, les moyens convoqués sont mis en jeu dans une pratique serrée, douce ou corrosive, toujours intense et élégante, souvent poétique. Sans doute est-ce ce qui fait de ce disque un précieux jardin portatif, que l’on garde près de soi.
Guillaume Tarche l Le Son du Grisli l Mars 2010

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Probing the furthest reaches of saxophone texture and timbre has been the preoccupation of altoist Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour’s improvising during the past few years. Recorded within a month of one another, Teeming and Ichnites capture two significant performances by the Paris-based reedist.
Together they’re notable sonically and sociologically.
Sonically the atonal fragmentation of breath, reed and metal in which she specializes is presented in different duo contexts. All-acoustic, Teeming teams Abdelnour with Berlin-based prepared piano explorer Magda Mayas. On the other CD, her partner is Paris’ Pascal Battus who uses motorized components from old walkmans as exciters, vibrators and resonators on cymbals and objects made of, among other substances, plastic, paper and cardboard. Sociologically, Abdelnour who is of Lebanese background, and who in the past has mainly played and recorded with improvisers on the Beirut-Paris axis, here establishes her own style with new partners, who while equally non-traditional in their playing, share similar creative DNA with her. Although elements of blended translucent sound layers mask rigid tone identification on both CDs, the pianist’s and the saxophonist’s musical persona are clearly defined on their disc. Chiaroscuro textural extensions and pointillist strategies are so prominent on Ichnites however that categorically ascribing certain resonating tones to one or the other is almost impossible and nearly pointless.
Battus in the past has worked with players such as guitarist Camel Zekri and bass trombonist Thierry Madiot. Here his strategies vacillate between those in which he pushes his motors to create a vacuum cleaner drone that dominates the entire aural air space to the creation of less obtrusive ragged splinters and ratchets which either pulse in isolation or complement the saxophonist’s trills in double counterpoint.
For her part Abdelnour unleashes a trick bag full of extended techniques which range from bird-whistled squeaks and high-pitched yelps to segmented breaths, split tones and vibrating tongue stops. These reed gymnastics stretch the narrative tessitura next to the rotating, band-saw like turns, unyielding drones and harsh, oscillated hums from Battus’ contraptions. During the CD’s five tracks, individual agitated pitches arte converted into definitive sound assemblies, confirming the impossibility of ascertaining where one person’s contribution ends and the other’s begins. Alongside this are enough pressurized, fortissimo roars which appear and vanish so frequently that they further muddy identification.
Especially notable are the reflective abrasions created by rattling objects or pressing them against equally unyielding substances, the sounds of which characterize reliefs de repas. Soon mercurial pitches swell to almost pipe-organ-like reverberations without revealing whether the centrifugal forces propelling them are the result of the high-pitched friction from Battus’ implements or the multiphonic air rammed into the dual improvisation from Abdelnour. Although the two also evolve in perfect symmetry on fouilles et rongement, the separation is clearer. The clattering and chirping smacks from rotated surfaces of polystyrene and cardboard can definitely be attributed to Battus. Still, the saxophonist’s windstorm of animal yowls and thin, sharp trills vibrate enough altissimo flattement to almost mirror the other’s ragged efforts...
... New aural essays on the further liberation of saxophone timbres, these CDs outline the contours of Abdelnour’s evolving style. They also demonstrate how she attains it through careful cooperation with two stylistically different, but sympathetic, fellow sound explorers.
Ken Waxman l JazzWord l August 2010

Pascal Battus started out as a table guitarist (guitare environée – "surrounded guitar" – is what he called it at the time), but in recent years has, like many other practitioners of the instrument, probably fed up with carrying out a whole suitcase full of gear, downsized his kit. Here he plays "rotating surfaces" ("small motorised components from inside old Walkmans, used as exciters on different objects reacting as vibrators and resonators: sheets of paper, cardboard, plastic, wood, metal, polystyrene pieces and stems connected to cymbals") in the company of alto saxophonist Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour in a set of five remarkably colourful, even rowdy, improvisations splendidly recorded by the Instants Chavirés sound engineer Etienne Foyer.
The variety of sounds Battus manages to conjure forth from his trashed Walkmans is most impressive: from wild stuck pig feedback shrieks to butterfly flutters, from teeth-grinding polystyrene squeals to forlorn whalesong, it's like a heavenly jam session, Burkhard Beins, Ferran Fages, Hong Chulki and Jason Lescalleet rolled into one. There's plenty here for Sehnaoui to get her teeth into (literally, it sounds like): the Lebanese-born saxophonist has rapidly established herself as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary improv, and Ichnites is another fine addition to her expanding discography. An ichnite, by the way, is a fossilised footprint, which might explain the presence of those animals on the album cover.. a couple of stags, a doe, a horse, a squirrel and (odd man out) what looks like a lonely spermatozoid trying to swim under a wooden chair in the middle of a forest. Intrigued? Wait until you hear the music. Oh yes, if you're allergic to high frequency meltdown, you may want to step out for a quick drink halfway through Fouilles & Rongement – yeouch!
Dan Warburton l Paris Transatlantic l July 2010

On Ichnites, Pascal Battus plays rotating surfaces; these consist of small motorised components from inside old Walkmans or cassette players, which are used as exciters on different objects reacting as vibrators and resonators : sheets of paper, cardboards, plastic, wooden, metal, polystyrene pieces, and stems connected to cymbals. The results are small resonant sounds that hover somewhere between percussion and drone.
Alongside Battus, Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour plays alto sax with such restraint, care and attention to detail that its sounds are hardly there at times. Adopting a range of blowing techniques, she extracts very different tones from the sax but never displays any great exuberance. This is completely fitting, as Battus produces sounds of such delicacy that they would be very easy to drown out. As with many successful improvising duos, Battus and Abdelnour mesh together so well that it can be hard to tell where the boundary between them lies.
The YouTube clip gives an accurate feel for the album as it was recorded live three days after the album itself was recorded. Most of all, that clip serves to emphasise that this duo provides a visual spectacle that is a natural accompaniment to the music, not least because it helps clarify the sources of the sounds.
This combination of sound and spectacle is reminiscent of the show put on by trombonist Mathias Forge and Olivier Toulemonde on acoustic objects; maybe it's a Gallic thing. However, as with Forge and Toulemonde, the visuals are a bonus, and this recording stands up well in its own right without them.
John Eyles l All About Jazz l July 2010

The combination of the mechanical and the manual overlay this improvisational duo from Lebanese-born alto saxophonist Christine Shenaoui Abdelnour and Pascal Battus. Battus plays, manipulates, or perhaps sets in motion rotating surfaces, explained in the liner notes as, "small, motorized components from inside old Walkmans, used as exciters on different objects reacting as vibrators and resonators: sheets of paper, cardboards, plastic, wooden, metal, polystyrene pieces, and stems connected to cymbals."
Certainly, the swing isn't the thing here. The sounds are all about texture and the weave of the electric with the breath. Shenaoui Abdelnour's designs are fixed upon extended saxophone technique; flutter, breath and pitch are her tools. The pair achieve an improvising harmony between the various frequency and tones Battus generates with his small motors that work upon varying flotsam.
The music—the sound—bristles and pops with electricity. The pair achieve a sort of visual and tactile response from their sound generation. Their hum and pop roots out a visceral answer, that raises the awareness in sort of 3-dimensional experience.
Mark Corroto l All About Jazz l May 2010

The name that this Parisian duo have given to their first album implies a perspective on recording improvised music that is either jaundiced or extremely optimistic. Ichnites are fossilized footprints, generally left by some dinosaur whose steps in the mud were subsequently covered by silt in a flash flood. Is this sonic artefact something that will survive for millions of years, or merely a dead cast of a finished activity?
Certainly their music loses something when divorced from its visual aspect. Battus uses his 'rotating surfaces' (motorised components from old Walkmans, used to resonate sheets of paper, cardboards, metal, polystyrene pieces, etc) to get sounds that bear no obvious relationship to the methods used - a quick YouTube search yields a video in which he instigates a delicious cognitive dissonance by making half of an impaled Styrofoam fast food container sound like an overdriven analogue synthesizer. Abdelnour sometimes indulges in visual theatre, as when she mutes her alto saxophone with a long cardboard tube in its bell. More often she sits stock still, blowing coarse rattles and highly electronic-sounding fizzes that seem as static as their maker, yet always end up exactly where they need to be.
But I’m betting Ichnites was named out of optimism. If all this record had to offer was another sure-stepping enactment of the ever evolving free Improv dance, l'd say fair enough and throw it on the heap with all the other worthy CDs that get a few hearings and a place on the shelf. What makes this one stand out is the duo's willingness to let memorably decisive gestures override good taste. They rend their skilfuf juggling of bubble and grit with iriterjections so strange, vulgar, or downright brutal that they continually snap the listener out of appreciative reverie.
Bill Meyer l The Wire l May 2010

Battus plays small rotating surfaces, as from the inside of an old Walkman, using them to excite various materials; he does this pretty much non-stop. Sehnaoui Abdelnour plays alto and you might say is generally in a John Butcher-ish area. I find the pieces too busy and reactive in nature, the pair creating many an interesting texture but, once in the "busy" vein, not being obsessive enough about it to really absorb me, though this problem improves as the discs progresses. There are a few intense moments on the third track, estocade & coulees and next piece also gets into some juicy, deep-buzzing territory but even there, not enough purpose for my money. The final track, relatively brief at under five minutes, hints at what the pair is capable of. Here a real unity is achieved, an unforced singularity of purpose.
Brian Olewnick l Just outside l April 2010

I’m on record as saying, probably more than once that Potlatch is, in my opinion the most consistently strong label around today. These days Jacques Oger probably only manages a couple of discs a year (I know the feeling) but they are just about always really strong, even when the musicians involved are not that well known to me, last years Narthex release being a good example. I know the music of Battus and Sehnaoui Abdelnour quite well though, and should declare an interest here in that I have recently agreed to release a CD involving Pascal. Ichnites is, for all essential purposes a straight up improv record, and a pretty good one at that. Battus plays “rotating surfaces” a form of instrumentation he goes on in the liner notes to explain involves small motorised components rescued from the insides of old Walkmen used to excite assorted surfaces. Sehnaoui Abdelnour makes life much easier by just playing alto sax. However it is inevitable and doubtlessly predictable for me to say that despite their perceived differences it is in places hard to tell the two sets of instrumentation apart. There are five tracks here, the first four all weighing in at roughly ten minutes in length, the last, titled voies et allures (ways and paces?) lasting half of that.
I say that this is a straight up improv record because from start to finish it documents an alive, often quite fiery musical conversation between these two musicians that places them as tussling, wrestling equals wrapping their sounds around each other to form the meaty, gristly mixture we have here. For the most part Sehnaoui Abdelnour plays her sax in the normal manner, blowing over the reeds, often with a low noteless warble, but nevertheless without an extreme amount of extended technique. She does bring her tones and whispers to match the general area of Battus’ agitated surfaces quickly and easily, though it should also be noted that in places Battus does the same, finding pitches to match the sax, thus revealing a remarkable amount of understanding of what must be a reasonably erratic way of creating sounds. There aren’t many silences, but then this isn’t full-on gabbification either. There is a great sensitivity to the playing that reveals two good sets of ears. The way these two musicians listen to one another is very impressive here. Generally a sound will be made by one or the other, after which there will be a slight pause and then the response comes, more often than not perfectly chosen and placed. The sounds here are all very nice, texturally interesting enough, but in truth the real joy in the music comes from following the conversation. In many ways it wouldn’t matter if this was a duo for prepared triangle and amplified tambourine, what works is the connection and occasional willful disconnection between the musicians, the dialogue, the discourse.
So what makes this release stand out from all the other great improvised music CDs? Well maybe nothing really, there is nothing I can say about this music other than underlining the great pleasure I get from following its narrative, and sharing in some small way in the conversation between the musicians. Interesting, engaging music is not always enjoyable music, sometimes the good recordings are also a challenge to our sense of what is pleasant to listen to, but here this is not the case. Ichnites keeps Potlatch’s record going, being a thoroughly engaging record that lasts forty minutes or so but feels like nearer fifteen, such is the ease in which I lose myself in it. Despite the use of 50% unusual instrumentation there are no rules being rewritten here, but that isn’t always necessary. Two musicians get together and find ways to work together. If we can’t be there at the time then a recording of the event is the next best thing. When the end result portrays that collaboration as well as Ichnites does we are onto a winner. Great cover too.
Richard Pinnell l The Watchful Ear l April 2010

On Ichnites, we hear improvised sax noises and non-musical grinderments emanating from motorised rotating surfaces – always a winning combination in anyone’s book. Lebanese-born Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour sucks unearthly, gritty whimperings from her alto sax, playing with such weightless grace that you can believe her hands never once made contact with brass. Pascal Battus plucks out motors from old portable cassette players, then rubs them whirlingly against common objects made of paper, wood or plastic, creating tones that make you think all the inanimate objects in the world are spending their time whining and complaining, if only we could hear them. Now we can.
Ed Pinsent l The Sound Projector l March 2010

Lebanese born, but now living in France is alto-saxophone player Christine Shenaoui Abdelnour, who has a background in improvisation, which she plays in all sorts of ways, some of which may be like intended by Aldophe. She works here with Pascal Battus, who usually works with table-top guitars, but here plays 'rotating surfaces': "small motorised components from inside old walkmans, used as exciters on different objects reacting as vibrators and resonators: sheets of paper, cardboards, plastic, wooden, metal or polystyrene pieces, and stems connected to cymbals".
They played together on may 26th 2009 and the results can be found on Ichnites. This is some hardcore improvised music, and not necessarily from a softer edge. Things buzz at times at an immense volume, for instance in Fouilles & Rongement. It's followed by a more quieter excursion, Estocade & Coulées. These two play some mighty intense music, which requires one full attention. It's not easy music, but one that makes your hair rise up the wrong way. An utter fine work of improvisation. Very intense, very beautiful.
Frans de Waard l Vital Weekly l March 2010