Eric Brochard & Fabrice Favriou - Derviche

Ken Waxman, JazzWord

 

Should there be any doubt that a highly amplified bass and a drum set can create enough energetic noise to dominate an entire session then Derviche puts that thought to rest. Yet while French piccolo bassist Eric Brochard’s and drummer Fabrice Favriou’s amplified sounds are intense enough to power an electrical grid, cannily indirect coloration infers a palimpsest of additional textures.

Although defined as experimental rock, the duo members aren’t full-time head bangers. Other Brochard bands include laptop explorations plus gigs with improvisers such as Jean-Luc Guionnet and Edward Perraud; while Favriou, who plays guitar elsewhere, has been in bands with Jean-Luc Petit, Benjamin Duboc and others. Perhaps by inference, it’s why there’s an augury of guitar licks from Brochard’s piccolo bass during the CD’s five sequences.

Rock-like rythms are paramount throughout due to the repetitive patterns in Favriou’s backbeat, spiked frequently with cymbal clatter. Additionally, while Brochard’s bass is highly electrified, slurred fingering and other guitar tropes prevent monotony. Although the overall sound is rotund and patterns recurring, the program reaches its zenith on “Sequence III” and “Sequence IV” when looser string splays attain bell-pealing textures and advanced percussion motifs become chunkier and more elevated. Before the resolution which mixes electrified tremolo string smears before attaining a near-Rockabilly melody and anvil-smacking drumming, logical exposure of multi-rhythmic and multi-textured motifs are clearly audible and logically presented.

Percussive slaps and string tangs complete the final sequence, confirming the duo’s strategy which signals that refinement can exist beneath so-called musical brutality.