Louis Sclavis, Benjamin Moussay – ‘Unfolding’

The album cover for Unfolding is a black-and-white photo of a cup of coffee on shade-dappled planks. It’s a good visual analogue for these musical conversations between Louis Sclavis (Bb and bass clarinets) and Benjamin Moussay (piano): intimate, relaxed, tenebrous yet flickering with light.

The two have played together in various groups for over twenty years, and Moussay has appeared on three previous Sclavis albums on ECM: Sources (2012), Silk and Salt Memories (2014) and Characters on a Wall (2019). But Unfolding is the first time they’ve recorded as a duo. All the compositions on the album are originals, three written by Sclavis (“A Garden in Ispahan”, “L’étendue” and “Somebody Leaves”) and the remaining six by Moussay.

Sclavis and Moussay’s musical partnership has been compared with the Jimmy Giuffre 3, and this album shares some of the restless probing between Giuffre’s Bb clarinet and Paul Bley’s piano, and a sense of hovering between jazz and the classical avant-garde. But Sclavis and Moussay have long had distinctive voices of their own, and overall this album feels more lyrical and less “out there” than, say, the Jimmy Giuffre 3 album Free Fall. And although Sclavis plays Bb clarinet on this album, he favours the bass clarinet. He’s a master at exploiting the instrument’s full range, from fluttering in the altissimo range to plunging into plump, rich tones deep in the chalumeau range.

Sclavis has said, “I wrote rather simple pieces that allow a lot of improvisation and letting go” and that’s where over twenty years of trust comes in: knowing intuitively where to sketch the melody, to counterpoint, to nudge each other, break free, or drop back and leave space. Everything flows gracefully: from gentle melodicism on “Unfolding” and “Snow”; to glacially sparse piano at the start of “Loma del Tanto” that builds to a classical elegiac feel; to lively unison melodies on “Somebody Leaves” and “Siete Lagunas” (the latter with gorgeous solo bass clarinet and solo piano); to dreamy French impressionism on L’heure du loup”; to harmonic ambiguity on “None” and “L’étendue”.

At 40:25 the album is LP length, and the LP version has been released two months after the CD and costs more. All this suggests a reversal of fortunes for vinyl over CDs. Also, streaming services have made entire catalogues (including ECM’s) virtually free. So it’s intriguing that some audiophiles and collectors are willing to pay more and wait longer for a single recording on an older format. But if any label can produce an LP desirable enough to be viable, it’s ECM with their high-quality pressings, beautiful artwork, and collectable recordings by outstanding musicians such as Sclavis and Moussay.

Whichever format you choose, this beautiful album is well worth hearing.

from https://ukjazznews.com