Partout de par le monde s'enregistrent d'excellents albums dont certains outrepassent encore l'excellence pour atteindre à la rareté. Il en est même qui s'affranchissent des classifications, nous cueillent au plexus solaire et squattent pour un temps l'espace privilégié de notre écoute. Ainsi de ce Translations, édité chez Potlatch, par Bertrand Denzler et Jason Kahn, dont on sent très tôt l'étroitesse des liens et la puissance du désir les attirant inexorablement vers cette création en pleine élaboration…
…Ou qui l'était, du moins, au cours de la séance d'enregistrement puisque nous savons que ce qui nous parvient a été fixé dans la mémoire numérique et la matière même du CD. Pourtant, la réelle fascination exercée par cet album réside en grande partie dans la présence d'une musique dont on jurerait qu'elle naît à l'instant où nous l'entendons. Le saxophone et le système électronique de Bertrand Denzler et Jason Kahn semblent interagir avec une telle urgence qu'il nous paraîtrait déplacé de vivre un présent déconnecté du leur. Plus encore que dans la différence affichée de leurs instruments, relevant des domaines respectifs de l'acoustique et de l'électronique, l'extrême singularité de ce duo s'exprime dans un incoercible besoin de communiquer, au risque de préférer la violence des échanges à l'absence de contact. Ces deux êtres opposés mais irrésistiblement attirés l'un vers l'autre ne parlent sans doute pas le même langage, mais leurs féroces empoignades dont le silence semble exclu génèrent une matière assez dense pour y plonger les racines d'un vocabulaire commun et, dès lors, assez neuf. En effet, le ténor de Bertrand demeure un saxophone et les sons qui s'en échappent ne renient pas leur origine, mais ils sont à ce point détournés, malaxés ou distendus qu'on ne sait plus s'ils émanent du cuivre ou du système de Jason Kahn. Quant à l'électronique manipulée par ce dernier, elle tient à la fois de l'art brut et du caméléon, susceptible en cela d'évoquer n'importe quel instrument dont, pourquoi pas, le saxophone. Ainsi les deux partenaires conversent-ils dans un idiome chatoyant, aussi mouvant que la moire et les reflets qui l'animent.
A la différence de ces enregistrements où les sons synthétiques brossent un paysage inamovible que le soliste parcourt en toute liberté, mais dans la solitude du promeneur livré à lui-même, les deux improvisateurs assument également la responsabilité d'un espace à occuper dans l'instant T de sa découverte. A peine les frottements et les grésillements des machines achevés, le souffle explore le vide ainsi constitué, recherche les scories oubliées dans le silence apparent et pose les bases d'une esthétique en gestation que son partenaire vient aussitôt remettre en question et bousculer à nouveau par un chuintement aigu, le cliquetis d'un engrenage ou le grondement mécanique d'un dispositif enclenché par la fantaisie de son libre arbitre. Les échanges, parfois, tiennent du bras de fer, aucun ne renonçant à la disposition d'un espace sans en disputer âprement la conquête et tenter d'y développer à nouveau les termes exigeants de sa propre volonté. La grande réussite de ce Translations vient, en fait, du refus catégorique de la bienséance à laquelle se substitue un engagement radical, aussi bien physique que mental.
Il faut se frotter à l'autre si l'on veut que jaillissent des étincelles, arracher de haute lutte l'objet de son désir, qu'il s'agisse d'un son, d'un espace ou d'un temps, et laisser aux ventres mous la réserve stagnante et les joies opaques de la politesse. Bertrand Denzler et Jason Kahn l'ont bien compris, pour qui le lyrisme et la convulsion ne sauraient naître des convenances et de la discrétion.
Joël Pagier l Revue & Corrigée l Mars 2023

A brief live recording from Paris in 2021 finds Bernard Denzler's tenor saxophone tangling with Jason Kahn's electronic brujeria, to much enchanting effect. At first you won't know what's going on, there's a kind of straw texture enlivened by breath and the occasional equilibrium altering whine and pop. These gents take their time and all the better for it. Who's doing what, though? There's crackle and timbre shift amid sudden metal toss and squelchy lip smack. When the clear saxophone tones arrive it's almost a surprise. From the little I know about Kahn's current working methods, mixed with the evidence presented here, I'd say he's taking in bits of Denzler's emissions and running them through a tangle of circuitry. The whole then presents us with a mirrored funhouse of defraction and endless revision. But don't think about the how, just listen to the what
The sax playing is a very near perfect mix of strange textures and straight notes, as if Denzler is morphing out of the bramble of electronics to float above them, or to comment wryly on their passage. At times, Kanh's dark wizardry evokes old school synth interjections, a ghost from the past. One could view it from the perspective of an aural history of improvised music, where everything that's ever been played is constantly spinning around itself as it runs its course. The bits of stoppage allow us to briefly compose ourselves and focus on the next enunciation. And 30 odd minutes seems like the perfect length of time for this engagement.
Jeph Jerman l The Squid'sEar l June 2023

Translations marks Denzler’s fourth release on the Potlatch label which have included a saxophone quartet, a solo tenor recording, and a recording of his composition Arc by the ensemble CoÔ. The live recording with Jason Kahn captures a concert at Tiasci, Paris in 2021, the first time the two performed together. Like Denzler, Kahn is a polyglot musician whose work spans text pieces, field recordings, percussion, and electronics in settings from improvisation to composition to site-specific installations. From the outset, the two carve out a reciprocal sonic space with buffets of burred breath and electronic hums and squiggles, developing their improvisation with an assured, patient trajectory. Labeling this a saxophone and electronics duo becomes quickly irrelevant. Here, Denzler’s approach to his horn is as a sound generator and while one can hear the elemental sonics of his instrument as the foundation of his playing, he has abstracted it down to modulations of breath, percussive key clicks and pad pops, and reed-generated vibrations, introducing microtones and skirled phrases as a component in his overall palette. Kahn’s contributions are built from whirrs, gradations of hiss and scumbled textures, static, and crackles. The timbral overlap of the two allow for absorbing interplay as one quickly loses the aural division between the two sound sources. A key defining attribute of this duo is their penchant for leaving plenty of space in their respective playing. They never crowd each other out, able to collectively steer the arc of the improvisation with lissome response. The two are an exhilarating fit and one hopes to hear more from them.
Michael Rosenstein l Point of Departure l June 2023

Based on the similarities and differences between the purrs, squeals and respirations of saxophone reed work and the programmed inconsistent hisses, buzzes and static from electronics, Translations burbles and judders through parallel outputs from both players. With reed expression varying from stuttering honks, growling flattement, linear drones and unaccented air forced through the horn’s body tube loudly and quietly, the push back from Kahn includes tremolo whirrs, sudden pops and rugged abrasions. Although both players’ timbres affiliate during the initial sequence with near unbroken timbres, harsher machine recoils and bent-note whines become more prominent as the piece advances. Trading places, squealing reed dislocation, key percussion and masticated split tones from Denzler project stridency, while purring crackles and quivering static from the electronics lighten the interface. The concluding motif finds Denzler aurally asserting expected saxophone properties with extended blowing, reed pops and tongue slaps until his output calms down to meld with restrained whirling from the programmed machine.
Ken Waxman l Jazzword l May 2023

This CD was released during the last days of 2022 and captures live, from one year before in Paris, two important figures of today’s electroacoustic improvisation. Bertrand Denzler might have made a name as an improviser closer to jazz based musics (playing the tenor saxophone makes it always easier to get labeled), but his choices during the past years place under the moniker, which is another label I admit it, of electroacoustic improvisation. Jason Kahn, born and raised in the United States but for a long time now living in Europe, always presents works that are far more flexible and audibly playful compared to the stagnation of any experimental “school”.
As I’m always interested in the use of titles, I tried really hard to pin down the choice for titling this CD. I failed. At the beginning I thought that this would be their verbal way of translating (sic) their different choices in playing and how those form a unique understanding that runs through the entire length of the CD – just over half an hour that is. This thought persisted in my mind as, at some point, realized that Denzler uses, or utilizes as a technician, the timbres of the sax, it’s droney nature, to accompany the electronic sounds that Kahn produces. I was never sure if this was a translation, one that always leaves room for mistakes and minor audio accidents or a funny way to ensure that the listener will try to realize that their interaction is impeccable, always on the forefront of what you are listening.
You may have realized by now that I enjoyed this CD. I should have noted that I really respect artists like Bertrand Denzler who tries to get rid his instrument’s burden (call it tradition) and totally baptize it as something fresh and new. In this gradual, I believe, transition, Jason Kahn is ideal as he navigates willingly and blindly –now that’s a guess that I feel strong about it…- through the uncertain paths his use of electronics follow.
The abstract nature of their music presented on this cd as a live version in real time plus the duo formation (always a preference for me) seems like the dialogue John Stevens was writing about in the liner notes of SME’s mid-70’s masterpiece, Face to Face, when he was describing his and Trevor Watts playing: like two friends who sit face to face, casually talking about trivial stuff, laughing, arguing and whatever else comes to mind. I really would like to write “free improvisation at its best” but since this would be another crude labeling, I’ll say that Translations is great free music.
Fotis Nikolakopoulos l The Free Jazz Collective l March 2023

Some moments approach textural and gestural mimickry, that one could become the other. Electronics accommodate saxophone by not sustaining inhumanly and maybe saxophone meets electronics in not moving too swiftly. Static crash abuts breathy friction. Clicks juxtapose popping tongue techniques. Beeping feedback squeals with shrill trills. Arced coos alongside gliss. But timbres never blur. Maybe they even diverge, more normative sax tones and the distinct noise in the ballpark of radio-like static and feedback of this setup in increasing frequency toward the end. Saxophone doesn’t follow electronics as closely in frequency as it probably could and electronics don’t engage in overt rhythms with saxophone though they probably could. Mimicking but seemingly purposefully refraining from the areas of the instruments at the points closest to the other to underline the boundaries and the choice of the player, the heart of improvisatory contexts. Or maybe it was a wish for a few moments but perfect alignment is not possible so soon. Either way, it sounds the social negotiations, the tensions and the happy affinities, of a first meeting with rare clarity.
Keith Prosk l harmonic series l March 2023

It is a great pleasure to welcome this Potlatch album which was released at the tail end of 2022. From 1998 until 2017 the independent French label released a steady stream of albums, averaging between two and three a year. Then, nothing was released in 2018, one album in 2019, nothing in 2020, two in 2021 and, now, one in 2022. Yes, four releases in five years. Given the dates, the slump was clearly not covid-related...
Nonetheless, the good news is that Potlatch is still alive and kicking. Even better, this album features the Geneva-born, Paris resident Bertrand Denzler; the tenor saxophonist has been a stalwart of Potlatch, here making his seventh appearance on the label, having featured on three of those last four releases. He is joined in a duo by the New York-born, Zurich resident Jason Kahn who is heard on electronics and is making his first Potlatch appearance. The two were recorded, in concert, at the Tiasci school of Indian music, in Paris, on December 10th, 2021. The recording, mixing and mastering were done by Kahn.
The album comprises one continuous track of just under thirty-five minutes. It begins with the unmistakable snap, crackle and pop sounds of electronics, soon joined by ambiguous noises which may originate from the saxophone. Gradually, these become more recognizable as the identifiable sounds of a blown reed ring out. While the saxophone and electronics never exactly blend together or complement one another, neither do they clash nor get in each other's way.
Overall, the electronic sounds occupy rather more of the soundscape than the saxophone, maybe because Kahn had control of the mixing. As a duo, the album is sure to please devotees of either player and to interest casual listeners also. Maybe most importantly, the end product is adventurous enough to be totally at home in the Potlatch catalog. Devotees of the label can welcome it with open arms.
John Eyles l All About Jazz l January 2023

Translations brings together two experimental improvisers, sound artists and scholars – Swiss-French tenor sax player Bertrand Denzler (who co-authored the book The Practice of Musical Improvisation – Dialogues with Contemporary Musical Improvisers, Bloomsbury, 202o, with French sax player Jean-Luc Guionnet) and American, Zürich-based electronics player, guitarist, vocalist and percussionist Jason Kahn (whose last book, Soundings, 2022, explores the sounds of Zürich).
Denzler and Kahn’s free improvised meeting was recorded live at Tiasci, Paris in December 2021. Khan, who focuses here only on electronics, was in charge of the recording, mixing and mastering. These experienced improvisers are well-versed in the art of the moment and with such kinds of intimate meetings. The 35-minute title piece searches for common ground between the subtle, extended breathing techniques of Denzler, including the fragile and fragmented multiphonics, and the raw electronics of Kahn. Slowly and patiently, the delicate variations of ethereal, acoustic sounds correspond with the white noise, and electronic sounds, commenting and expanding the other’s sonic spectrum, and this abstract dialog sketches more and more common threads, including fleeting and brief rhythmic patterns.
Translations demand a total command of the acoustic instrument and the electronic devices as well as a free sonic imagination and great focus. This abstract improvisation reminds us of the suchness and of sounds – air being blown through a metal tube and different usage of electric power and short circuits, as well as how these fascinating sounds interact and create an open and free language of their own. A sonic lesson for all of us.
Eyal Hareuveni l Salt peanuts l January 2023

A release with a duet of improvisation; somehow, it occurs to me that in recent years there haven't been many of those with the music of Jason Kahn. Over the years, he played with many musicians. Kahn used various instruments over the years, and in a duet with Bertrand Denzler, who plays tenor saxophone), Kahn takes credit for electronics. Whatever these are, we aren't told. I can imagine this to be an analogue synthesizer, used by him before, but also a modular set-up of some kind. They recorded their music on December 10, 2021, and there is a single piece on the CD, so perhaps the music is the entire thing recorded that day. Firmly located in the world of improvised, especially on the side of Denzler, the music also remains quite extreme. Kahn's electronics scratch and peep most of the time, mainly creating sharp piercing sounds, mild distortions and short-circuit feedback. Denzler keeps up with this and likes to keep his sounds short and to the point, only occasionally leaping into sustained tones. Yet, his saxophone remains recognizable, at least most of the time. The music is as radical as intense and not something one sticks to for 'fun'; at least, not me. The music requires quite some effort on the part of the listener, who is willing to concentrate and actively listen to the music; otherwise, I think the listener may have a hard time. But if the listener is ready to make an effort, then there is quite some beauty in this radical and, at times, noisy release.
Frans de Waard l Vital weekly l January 2023