April 19th, 2010: Chen Santa Maria / Ero Babaa / Gmackrr – Brandon Valdivia / Etienne Brunet

@tunnel

I think Etienne Brunet‘s set was my favorite. I liked the unexpectedly melodic saxophone with a drone background that matched well the title he gave beforehand — tinnitus. It wasn’t out of place at all in my opinion, and a brought welcome free jazz bits in the mix. I was told later it was actually raga-based, which gives rise to other interpretations.

I liked Gmackrr‘s music the first time I heard her, and I thought the start of her set with Brandon Valdivia was great, with the percussion element meshing well and adding a new dimension. I didn’t think that held that well at the end of the set though. But there’s definitely something interesting going on there.

Then another onslaught from Ero Babaa. I think I never heard the sax that well before in their sets, as if that mattered that much anyway. They did their thing, which may not amount to much musically, but they had a good sound, and the engagement it takes to make such a thing work. And it did work, so it was well worth it.

Chen Santa Maria were the most regular sounding with guitars and effects, but the set was interesting anyway. I tend to like these sets where small structures are built only to be torn down. Maybe the tearing down was a little too fast sometimes though. It’s not as much that it didn’t leave enough time than that the timing got a little bit predictable. Nice enough though.

Romaric Sobac also performed this night, but I was outside and missed all but the last five seconds or so.

Advertisements