The staying in Paris, for some years, of the young violist João Camões may have put him away from the Portuguese improv scene, but sure is it enabled him to enter in the French one. This is his second edition with one of the musicians with whom he started to work in the City of Lights, Jean-Marc Foussat, now in duo after the trio with Claude Parle heard in “Bien Mental”. What we find in this new “À la face du ciel” is somewhat different from that other recording, and if it would be natural to have more intimate and introspective results, considering the one-to-one dialogue, we get the opposite: the music is even more intense, visceral and dynamic. In electro-acoustic territory, that’s not an established procedure. When there’s a computer involved, the tendency is for (non-)developments in the form of drones and for ethereal soundscapings.

There’s a particular circumstance: Foussat doesn’t use the concepts defining the present day electronica, but those of the acoustic improvised music and free jazz, established through multiple partnerships with Jac Berrocal, Daunik Lazro, Sophie Agnel, Jerôme Bourdellon and Makoto Sato, among others. Unquiet, acting by impulse and always with new ideas, in the two long pieces of the CD he covers several kinds of approaches, the two main ones being the live processing of the signals coming from his partner and the elaboration of synthesis. Confronted with this constant challenge, Camões tries do go beyond his own limits and to get out from comfort zones, doing it superbly and not fearing the fact that he’s playing with a veteran. The language used by this member of the Portuguese bands Open Field Trio and Earnear contain, mostly, elements from contemporary classical music, this way introducing a rather curious logic of contrasts. It’s a joy to listen.

Recorded in 01.12.2014 at Studio Pyjama (La Garenne-Colombes, France) by Jean-Marc Foussat | Mixed and mastered by Jean-Marc Foussat
Produced by João Camões and Jean-Marc Foussat | Executive prodution by Travassos for Shhpuma/Trem Azul | Design and artwork by Travassos