(Free Improvisation, Avant-Garde Jazz, Electroacoustic) [WEB] Insub Meta Orchestra - Archive #1 - 2012, FLAC (tracks), lossless

The IMO is a very large improvisors ensemble, founded in september 2010, It usually gather about 35 musicians per concert, from all switzerland and beyond.
From the, expected, mess of the first concerts emerged a collective consciousness and involvement from the impressive number of musicians included in this ambitious projet. After a year - and 7 concerts - 40 of them met during 3 day during the 2011 summer, marking a sensitive step in the orchestra progression. Working deeply a certain amount of pieces - concepts and conductions - appeared a new sound quality, a opening of the space, a fragility of the volume, a more electroacoustique, minimal, "concrète" direction. The orchestra started to think as an an emsemble, with multiple components but looking to project a unique/common sound, to look for details, restraint, variable densities, breathes, drones, subbasses...
The alternation of "free" and "conducted" improvisation was from the begining a manner to test various pathes of collective operation. If this first record - first archive - contain mainly conducted pieces it's because at one time they were crucial about etablishing a common background into the orchestra, it resulted a definitive strenght allowing us now to play autonomously with far much accuracy.
The IMO, whom will have done 16 concerts more at the end of its second season, became, beyond the manifest gathering, a solid group and a experience open on an exciting future.
Founded in September 2010, the Insub Meta Orchestra (IMO) is an ensemble composed of several dozen improvisers from Switzerland and beyond. The group first explored its possibilities in seven separate concerts and then, in the summer of 2011, forty members hunkered down for a three-day musical marathon, which allowed it time and space to delve into a few pieces and explore the shifting line between orchestration and improvisation. The result of this group vision quest is Archive #1, a gripping electro-acoustic voyage that’s a highly successful blend of intention and spontaneity.
IMO works with a broad palette of instrumentation, an intriguing mix that’s elegantly presented and intertwined. This particular project includes traditional instruments such as saxophone, clarinet, trombone, guitar, cello, and bass; the less traditional spinet, accordion, banjo, and bouzouki; a few staples of the experimental including a theremin, laptop, and analog electronics; and the completely unexpected, namely a tennis racket and a typewriter. Although the music is produced partly by acoustic instruments, the overall sound is distinctly metallic; this is the poetry of machines, a praise song of metal and electronics.
Each of the six pieces has its own texture, but the CD works together as a whole to create an atmospheric suite. « Punkte und Flächen » starts with a breathy, sizzling sound, then moves slowly through a pregnant silence, adding slices of noise and blips of percussion and a whistling wind, gradually heating up into a clanking, furious intensity. « The Living Dust » is a deliciously eerie piece with a variety of mysterious sounds simmering just under the surface, while « Et si… » is centered around a drawn-out high pitch that provides a base for a variety of sounds that come and go. The group’s dance with the pitch is an excellent example of its ability to set off everyday sounds and allow them to be heard anew.
« Lava Underground » is a marvelous subterranean piece that grows in menace and slowly builds a burgeoning wall of sound, and « Miroir » (French for « mirror » or « glass ») incorporates bits of a human voice, as well as the aforementioned typewriter. The CD closes with « Set Sail, Finally, » an airy, eleven-minute song that simmers with potency. The sounds include isolated notes, clacking percussion, crying strings, and another visit from that underrated instrument, the typewriter. The sounds weave together throughout the piece, mostly in quick snippets, sometimes as sustained drones, and other times as shimmering fields, altogether creating a splendid meditation on space and noise.
One of the beauties of this music is how malleable it is to the imagination. The sounds are whatever you like: neurons firing, an iceberg shifting, computers talking back, a lawnmower gone rogue—anything is possible. This music is mysterious and perhaps mystical as well. Archive #1 is a remarkable achievement, a genuine sonic adventure that celebrates the pleasures of the unknown and the known, and reveals ever-deeper realms of musical possibility. - Florence Wetzel / All about jazz

Antoine Läng mouth
Brice Catherin cello
Brooks Giger doublebass
Christian Müller contrabass clarinet
Christophe Berthet saxophone, conduction n°2
Christoph Schiller spinet, conduction n°1
Cyril Bondi floor tom, cymbal – d’incise objects, conduction n°3
Denis Beuret trombone
Dragos Tara doublebass
Edmée Fleury voice
Eric Ruffing theremin, analog electronics
Fabrice Pittet ac. guitar, voice, perc.
Filippo Provenzale percussions
Frédéric Minner elec. bass
Florence Melnotte keyboard
Ganesh Geymeier saxophone
Gianluca Ruggeri function generator
Gérald Zbinden ac.& elec. guitars
Guy Bettini trumpet
Hannah Marshall cello
Heike Fiedler voice
Igor Cubrilovic acoustic resonator guitar
Ivan Verda elec. guitar, buzuki
Jamasp Jhabvala violin
Jonas Kocher accordion
Loïc Grobéty piano strings elec. bass
Marcel Chagrin elec. guitar
Nicolas Raufaste ac. guitar
Olga Kokcharova typewriter, voice
Patricia Bosshard violin, conduction n°5, Phonotopy tennis raquet
Raphaël Ortis elec. bass
Richard Jean elec. guitar
Rodolphe Loubatière percussions, conduction n°4
Simon Berz d.i.y. instruments, electronic
Steve Buchanan saxophone, elec. guitar
Thierry Simonot electronics
Thomas Peter laptop
Vinz Vonlanthen elec. guitar, banjo