Pierre Favre Ensemble – Fleuve

Drummer Pierre Favre displays such sensitivity to tonal nuance on his instrument that it’s little wonder his compositions burst with felicitous detail. Drawing on the resources of an unconventional ensemble (when was the last time the dragon, an unwieldy military horn with 16th-century origins, popped up in a jazz context, or any at all?). Favre rigorously transforms Fleuve into a kaleidoscope of surprising musical colors.

Well, nearly surprising. While the imaginative combinations of electric and acoustic basses, harp, electric guitar, bass clarinet, tuba, percussion and the aforementioned dragon distinguish the project, the use of piping soprano saxophone (as played by the adept Frank Kroll, who shines on bass clarinet) can land the quirky group sound back in overly familiar ECM territory. A niggling complaint perhaps, but Favre demonstrates the kind of masterly arranging skills in which even small missteps mar the landscape.

When Favre’s on, however, all is forgiven. Particularly effective are the morphing “Nile,” which sets off the low-end dragon against the pinging harp; “Decors,” with Favre’s evocative hand-drumming breaking past a stately theme; and “Albatros,” enlivened by guitarist Philipp Schaufelberger’s clear-toned lyricism. Favre’s own meticulous playing and selfless adherence to big-picture equilibrium—that the drummer is the album’s linchpin would come as a shock in a blindfold listening—is matched by each member of his finely balanced ensemble. Is this lean toward scrupulous craft emblematic of Favre’s Swiss background? May future recordings from this bracing septet provide further clues.
Steve Futterman - JazzTimes Magazine - October 2007
 

Back with ECM after a decade, percussionist Pierre Favre has delivered one of his most captivating albums. It is hardly surprising that the musician who produced such unexpected colours and textures as a solo act and from a percussion quartet (the Singing Drums of the 1980s) should find so many possibilities in the almost wilfully unconventional instrumentation employed for this edition of the Ensemble.

While there is a strong rhythmic backbone to these seven Favre compositions, with bass, drums, harp and guitar often acting together as a unit to carry the pulse, it is the agreeable melodies and the ingenious, fresh and attractive voicings that distinguish the session. From the opening “Mort d’Eurydice”, where the bass’s heartbeat wells up from a shimmering cymbal and harp introduction, via the delicate guitar/harp interaction on “Albatros” and the soprano workout on “Reflet sud” to the final Tudor-tinged “Decors”, this is a gratifying listen.
Barry Witherden – BBC Music Magazine – February 2007

The stylistically far-ranging Swiss drummer and composer Pierre Favre has produced something as unusual as its lineup. … A haunting blend of eastern and medieval influences, imbued with a stately melancholy, it owes as much to the melodic flavour of Favre’s compositions and his understated playing, as it does to his composer’s control of the ensemble. Subtle, with lovely dynamics and beautifully balanced colours, ultimately it burns with more light than heat.
Ray Comiskey -  Irish Times

 

A door opens. A space is opened. A sound space that opens into another and another, in almost labyrinthine branches. But we do not lose our way. There is a thread for us to follow. What we hear makes us dance and think. Turbulent dance of ideas. Memories and recollections. On the trail of sound with Pierre Favre. The percussionist as poet, the drummer as sound painter and the improviser as artist of survival. Carefully and decisively. With a sensitivity based on inner strength.

Bert Noglik – Translation Andrew Shields

It’s hard to imagine that a group as bottom-heavy as percussionist Pierre Favre’s new ensemble could actually sound light and ethereal. But Fleuve does just that. With a septet featuring two basses, tuba/serpent, percussion and, at times, bass clarinet, there’s no shortage of warmth and depth. But with guitar, harp and soprano saxophone fleshing out the middle and top end, Fleuve manages to have both weight and an airy ambience that works, in no small part, due to Favre’s carefully crafted compositions and the kind of sonic transparency that’s long been a defining aspect of the ECM aesthetic.

Favre’s writing often occupies no specific temporal space. There are elements of Renaissance and Baroque music in the blended textures, and intertwining melodies of harp, soprano saxophone, guitar and serpent on “Decors,” but Favre’s deeply resonant percussion gives it a forward motion that comes from either another era or locale. “Fire Red - Gas Blue - Ghost Green” bears a tenuous Middle-to-Far Eastern flavor while, at the same time, presenting a more expansive landscape and subtly persistent backdrop for solos from guitarist Philipp Schaufelberger and bass clarinetist Frank Kroll.

“Mort d'Eurydice” begins abstractly, with dark-hued cymbals coloring harpist Hélène Breschand atmospheric mix of abstruse melody and jagged chord, a bass pulse emerging to lead the ensemble into more lyrical territory referencing, again, Favre’s classicism. “Panama” begins equally in the ether, with Breschand, Schaufelberger and double-bassist Bänz Oester interacting with understated freedom before settling into a lengthy theme revolving around harp and bass. A brighter melody doubled by guitar and bass clarinet ultimately emerges, leading into fleeting solos from Oester, Schaufelberger and Kroll before a brief, seemingly non sequitur of a coda.

Favre has always demonstrated a remarkable ability to make his instruments sing. A composer who combines longer form with ample integrated space for his band mates to explore, Favre’s fine ear has been honed through evolving texture, movement and melody from a wide range of percussion instruments spanning the entire dynamic spectrum. While he doesn’t completely desert the more rhythmic aspect of his instruments—“Reflet Sud,” for example, moves inexorably and insistently forward —he remains a melodic equal alongside the other members of the ensemble.

Fleuve surpasses the not inconsiderable achievements of Favre’s all-percussion Singing Drums (ECM, 1984) and relatively more conventionally configured Window Steps (ECM, 1996) through its breadth of texture and greater capacity for orchestration, despite its still small size. There are those who believe that percussionists don’t make compelling composers and/or bandleaders. Favre’s small but significant body of work for ECM lays waste to any such claims, with Fleuve the best argument yet.
John Kelman - all about jazz – 18 April 2007