eric la casa – secousses panoramiques

Me and Jen went to see a free jazz supergroup on Wednesday comprising Evan Parker, John Butcher, Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, Joh Edwards and Tony Marsh, and it was absolutely stunning. Butcher and Yoshihide played first, with gasps and moans from Butcher’s sax met with indifference from Yoshihide’s blank electronic tones. Then Butcher and Sachiko, with a more angry, frantic set, and then a set from all the players that was two pieces of variously spasmodic, torpid, and flowing improv, with suddenly unfurling rhythms, juddering bass, classical sax tones and an undescribable, barely human energy. It was so involving, uplifting and pure that it left me in a very impressionable and open-minded state, dangerous when record shop Sound 323 was set up across the room.

We toddled over after the gig, me to buy Butcher’s Resonant Spaces and to try and leave it at that, but predictably we got sucked into a mini spree. Rather rashly, I picked up a lovely small-envelope sized thing called “Secousses Panoramiques”, with a 1950’s picture of some cartoon people walking into a lift. I decided I was going to buy it on the strength of the packaging, and such was my open-mindedness after the gig that I wasn’t dissuaded when Sound 323 Man told me it was a collection of recordings of lift mechanisms at work.

The next day I cursed myself for allowing such a rash purchase of some surely very cold and silly sound art. I slipped it on the 3″ CD while doing the washing up, and sure enough, it’s recordings of elevator sounds, from ones in Paris, Anvers and Melbourne. No peppy melodies, it has to be said.

But I eventually found it really compelling. The sounds of floor announcements, ding-dong bells, twanging cables and shuffling people prompts you to imagine your own stories of these places, and the drone of the mechanisms and clank of the doors is strangely comforting (except from track 13, whose lift sounds like it needs a good oiling). I’d put it alongside FM3’s Buddha Machine in terms of outside-the-box ambient recordings that soothe and inspire. Here’s a couple of examples:

Eric La Casa – Paris: 11 Rue Euryale Dehaynin – Traction Cables And Machine – 6 Floors

Eric La Casa – Melbourne: Earle st. : Unilodge Building – Inside – 6 Floors

Eric La Casa – Paris: La Defense – Car Park – Inside – Travelling – 6 Floors

You really need to have the whole thing play through its 16 recordings and 21 minutes to get the full effect – buy it from the label, Hibari Music, here. Only £8.75 including p&p from Japan. Barg. And Sound 323 is opening Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, plus during various gigs, at Cafe Oto in Dalston from the end of the month. Open 24 hours online, obv.