Tierce
Caisson

Interview with Jez riley French

First of all could you tell us how the Tierce trio came into being.  Geographically it’s not a natural unit insofar as you all live in different cities.

The trio came about when I invited Ivan to the UK in 2007 for a performance at the concert series I run – ‘seeds & bridges’ in East Yorkshire. Originally the idea was for me & Ivan to perform a duet (as we did on another concert during Ivan's visit & when I visited the Czech Republic) & for Daniel to provide the opening set of the night. However in the end we performed a private set during the afternoon (which became the basis for the first tierce release on the ‘. point engraved’ label) & two sets at the evening event.

Since then I have collaborated with Ivan & Daniel on several occasions but the tierce trio has only had the opportunity to perform together again once - as part of seeds & bridges 2010. We are all keen to perform further as a trio when opportunities arise - to spread out, to engage & reflect in a live setting.

‘Caisson’ is in a sense a fairly traditional cd insofar as it's a recording of an improvised concert.  But this is increasingly unusual these days.  Can you describe the range of your current practices in music, and how does the ‘caisson’ disc fit in with this?

Actually the fact that 'caisson' is based on a recording of a live event wasn't pre-planned. The event itself was slightly unusual for all members of the trio as we performed whilst moving images were shown - though we did not 'soundtrack' the film itself. Some time after the event we all began to feel that a section of the performance was a piece in itself.

In terms of current music / sound related practices most of my time these days is spent exploring (as has been the case for some time) within the realm of listening, field recording and preparing / performing & installing photographic scores. I myself haven't really used the term 'improvised' in relation to my live performances for many years now. I prefer to say 'intuitive composition'. With the tierce trio & the ‘caisson’ cd I think we all feel that this meeting between intuitive composition, sound & improvisation has a language of its own. Certainly one thing I like about it is that  the aspect of listening is constantly shifting in a forward motion. Moments are at the core of what fascinates me & tierce seems to be able to find those naturally within the emerging frame of the piece. I for one would like to get the chance for tierce to perform over a long duration, to see how those moments amplify the space around them in an extended period of time. In that sense there is a direct link to the way other areas of my creative interests have developed: time, space, stillness, quietude - even in the midst of a detailed audible field.

You mention "time, space, stillness, quietude", but one of the things that strikes me - and indeed appeals to me - listening to ‘caisson’ is that at times it is quite abrasive.  I really like its unpredictability in that sense; it's not by any means the stereotype of a post-reductionist improvisation.

Well, for one thing, what I've come to know & deeply enjoy with listening in terms of field recording is that all of those things (time, space, stillness, quietude) exist even in the most densely populated sounds or sound fields. It's a question of detail - getting ones ears, ones listening in closer & closer - micro-listening perhaps. It’s perfectly possible to sense stillness & quietude in the middle of a busy city for example or indeed surrounded by a natural environment. Likewise if one sits & listens in an empty building, what begins seemingly 'quiet' is soon perceived, in its true state, as very richly embroidered with sound, with its own music. 

'Post-reductionist improvisation' - hmm, not sure about that one. Whilst I understand what you might mean by that term I'm lucky enough that I don't really feel part of or involved in a process that bases its path on things like this. I guess there are folks out there whose work is ‘post’ this or that, but I've never been comfortable with these ways of marking time or the evolution of any creative practice. It can have a tendency to sometimes distort history (& therefore the present & future too) & draw attention away from as many important areas as it can throw a spotlight on. 

Could you say a bit more about your use of field recordings, because for me it’s certainly one of the most distinctive features of the ‘caisson’ disc?  Your recent solo cd ‘Four objects’ presented four recordings in their raw, unedited state in a way I found really interesting, but on ‘caisson’ you are using a variety of field recordings in a far more ‘composerly’ way, as elements within the overall flow and structure of the music.  

‘Field recording’ is something I do, & have done, for the sheer joy of it for a long time. In that respect using them in a live context is simply me making use of elements I find pleasing, the same as if I use a certain approach on a conventional instrument. The use of them also alters whether it’s in a solo performance or in an ensemble. For example on ‘caisson’ some recordings I use add texture - they are used as an instrument within the trio - & then they also can create moments of rest or space - in a similar way as a conventional composition might use ‘silence’.

I never really process the recordings I make - for me the fascination & subtle power of these discoveries is in their unaltered state - however presenting them as I do on ‘four objects’ for example is something I see as more than mere documentation. I’m not sure I can really put into words why it isn’t but perhaps it’s close to say that the choice of when to press record, when to press stop & how much the minute detail & overall vista contained within a recording becomes composition - intuitive composition that is as in the field I am simply in the moment. At least I am when I manage to get recordings that prove to be the most interesting to listen back to. 

I’d also say though that although this thing called ‘field recording’ exists, really what I do is listen - I listen in different ways & this has, I’m sure, a pivotal effect on any performance I’m involved in. I think also this is what makes tierce such a great trio to be part of. Both Daniel & Ivan listen (to others & themselves) in ways that are quite different from the mainstream of current improvisation. 

You've been engaged in various ways - musically and photographically - with the music of the Wandelweiser composers.  What is it that has drawn you to their work, and how has if affected you?

I happen to like some of the work of some composers within the Wandelweiser group but no more so than a huge range of other music, sound, visual art, cooking, eating....life etc. I might listen to a piece by Antoine Beuger for example but in any one day I'll also listen to music by any number of other composers such as Herbert Howells or Takemitsu or Delius & of course other forms of music & sound. I've only got to know Wandelweiser in the last couple of years anyway & even then not all of it. I guess the pieces I like have tended to be the ones with very clear lines but I don't feel it's a big enough part of my listening landscape to have an effect that can be discussed in this way. I always find these sorts of question tricky to answer - it always seems to me that there is so much to listen to, to engage with & if we're lucky we'll perhaps get to experience about 0.0001% of it, so to have an effect on ones own work it seems to me one would need to have a rather narrow way of thinking, of listening. The very best thing I can say at this point is that retaining, naturally, ones sense of wonder when it comes to exploring music is fantastic. 

I find that eclecticism, of being open to a wide variety of experiences and musics refreshing.  It feels that sometimes people in the arts like to build barriers separating them off from other artists or genres.  Is this something you’re aware of within improvised and contemporary musics? 

Ah - now, this is a question that’ll open a can of worms, so I shall try to be succinct in my response. I think the issue you raise is certainly a major one here in the UK at least & has been for some time. The ‘art world’ has in recent years used the term sound art to re-write the history of artistic & explorative music / sound. The almost total lack of knowledge of these forms by the art establishment (curators, writers etc) means that very often work is given credit & exposure that is either of a low quality in terms of its originality, all be it often with a whitewash of dense hyperbole added, or in other ways seems like a step backwards to those with an active interest & enjoyment of these forms The effect is then circular - musicians / composers find that in order to access funding or certain creative spaces, they have to use the same language as the art world does, to apply the same terms & to frame their work in a way that will be understood by people who very often would have no interest in their work otherwise. It is a sad truth that the majority of people with an interest in contemporary visual art have a wide ranging & very open attitude to those forms, but, when it comes to music / sound things can be different & the mainstream, commercial forms tend to still dominate. People are of course free to like whatever music they want - it’s more that there is this huge divide between people’s expectations & passions for visual arts & their exploration of music / sound. Many folks will go to see a ‘sound art’ exhibition now of course, but there is a disconnect between that & explorative music, fostered (I believe) by the art world lack of knowledge or interest in non-mainstream music. Oh & don’t get me started on the fact that 99% of art openings will feature third rate ‘indie’ bands or DJ’s hammering out the most banal ‘music’ . For me there a rather arrogant or perhaps lazy assumption there that everyone wants to listen to that kind of thing (in whatever context). It means that what you end up with this constant circular dumbing down of the culture & no engagement by the curators & therefore the audience, with music that is valued with the same range of criteria as the visual arts. Of course this disconnect can be traced back to the time when music became increasingly about entertainment rather than ‘art’ - the way it was separated from the term ‘the arts’ & instead came to be a commercial industry. Having said that, explorative music has always been a true art form if one used the same definitions that one would apply to the other arts. Sadly it’s the art establishment that hold the keys to doors & the purse strings & so it seems, for now at least, the work that will benefit from better access to performance spaces & opportunities & indeed to funding (private or public) will mostly be the work curators know of - & that will be defined by their own listening tastes & dedication to ‘looking beyond’ - rather ‘listening beyond’

It’s also fair to say that ‘other’ music scenes have their own sets of blinkers which are sometimes in evidence. It’s possible to perceive a mainstream & conservative outlook amongst those involved at times. The odd thing is that it’s often the most conservative people who seem to believe they aren’t at all. 

Reviews

“Tierce is an international trio of electroacoustic musicians which has existed since 2007:  first Jez riley French (electronics, objects, field-recordings, zither, contact mics, etc..), Daniel Jones on turntables and electronics, and finally, Ivan Palacký on amplified knitting machine (... yes you read that right). The performance that gave rise to the disc Caisson was a single piece lasting an hour at a concert recorded in an art gallery in Hull in November 2010.

So imagine a fairly large box  or cabinet ('caisson') of any sort, the important thing being the space that it contains rather than its function.  Because space seems essential for these three musicians: the electroacoustic music offered here is a kind of sound design in which the sounds define and individualise the space as they fill it.  What sounds then?  It's difficult to say; it navigates constantly across DIY electronics, field recordings of all sorts (bells, various background soundscapes, birds etc...) and strange sounds that are unrecognisable.  All this is mixed together and merged into a single fluctuating, shifting field, which is both light and corrosive, aggressive and calm. No hierarchy is established between the various sound sources, they all belong to a single stratum.  And this stratum carves a space out of time, a space that is created at the same moment as it is inhabited by the music.

Of course, there is a particular form of sonic exploration at work in Caisson; each of the three musicians trace a soundworld that is strictly personal, but timbre doesn't seem to be their primary concern.  They all seem more interested in the spatial properties and characteristics of the sounds:  how will such a noise fill the space?, how will the hearing of some other sound be experienced within the spatial environment?  Caisson plays above all with sensory perception ("micro-listening" as Jez riley French says in his interview for Another Timbre), the trio plays with the possibilities of changing our perception (which is auditory in one sense, but also visual, and – why not? - olfactory and taste-based) through a careful listening that evolves in a global environment whose objectivity and solidity are  here put in question.

However, despite the tranquility that characterizes it, this music is also rather tense, doubtless because of these constant shifts and fluctuations, partly as if any form of stasis was feared, but also because of the often abrasive sounds that are used, which progressively fill the space in an apparently ineluctable process.  A space that is filled, but not only by sounds: silence also has a prominent place across the spaces of this piece, a silence so pervasive that it becomes the equal of the sounds with which it interacts.  Silences of a frighteningly heavy substance.  A music that is above all not static, nor linear, but which evolves across an unstable terrain that is in flux, across spaces that are sometimes saturated with noises, or else with silences, but also across airy regions that would be suitable for meditative contemplation. An approach that flirts with the infinite (time as well as space), so calm and poised that no border would be able to delimit this universe.   

I haven't heard Tierce's first album, which was released on Jez riley French's label, but Caissont, despite some difficulties in approaching it due to the considerable attention it requires, takes us on a unique micro-sensory journey across a space that the musicians have brought into being and in which they are fully invested. Their approach to sound and its 'intuitive' unfolding is radical, and this creates a music that is bizarre, unexpected and unprecedented, but once you have overcome your cultural reticence, Caisson has the ability to take the listener inside some fantastic spaces where the Kantian categories of perception are annihilated at the same time as they are exacerbated. A supernatural music seems to allow the opening, maturing and fulfilment as much of perception itself as of the things perceived (especially sound, and space and time).”

Julien Heraud, Improv-Sphere