Free

Description

By choosing this qualifier for his new album, Guillaume Perret is foreshadowing future debates about the very nature of his jazz. “Designed as film music, Free aims to be a free journey through different landscapes, different emotions,” warns the saxophonist, who wants to drop the mask and return to the essence of what makes him unique. More than a title, it is a statement of intent. It took courage to make this solo leap, without nets (the accomplices one can rely on, bounce off, lean on?), a plunge into the ocean of sounds that resonates like an apnea dive into the depths of his imagination. True to a DIY mindset, he translates onto vinyl what he has already tested many times in the past. For this solo, the saxophonist, who has never hidden his taste for hybridity, therefore chooses to multiply himself. On the instrument, of course, thanks to the setup put in place, he takes on every role. But also across the tracks, where he varies the pleasures: minimalist passages, Balkan bursts, electronic temptations, melancholic pauses, denser rebounds, offbeat steps toward the dance floor? Guillaume Perret explores sound, his own, which he distorts to such an extent that one might believe this is all the work of programming. Nothing could be further from the truth: everything is played in real time! As each track unfolds, he layers sounds using his loopers on a single track, which he then cuts up to rebuild a thematic suite, whose multiple facets reflect both this extraordinary personality and the singularity of the method. With only his treated saxophone, Guillaume Perret recreates orchestral sections or electro productions, a drum drive or the suspension of a bass? In the end, always alone on board, he tackles a wide variety of registers and offers a deeply personal reinterpretation, made up of the multiple echoes that resonate in his playing and reflect the many fragments of his polymorphous identity. “Jazz has many colors, and cannot be limited to any one style. It is a huge sandbox where anything is possible.” The saxophonist draws from it the material to shape a soundtrack that is at once synthetic and organic. He invites us to make our way through the folds and folds of his thought? Besides, to grasp its full scope, close your eyes and open your ears wide.