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Eve Risser Red Desert Orchestra: Eurythmia

By Mark Corroto
November 26, 2022
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Eve Risser Red Desert Orchestra: Eurythmia

Welcome to the jungle. Composer, pianist, and orchestra leader

Eve Risser

piano
b.1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Eve Risser sends us greetings from the wilds. It is this forest she has been exploring with European and West African musicians. Her expedition is a hypnotic journey dense with percussive attacks and mesmeric states.

The twelve piece Red Desert Orchestra is an extension of Risser's White Desert Orchestra, which gave us Les Deux Versants Se Regardent (Clean Feed, 2016). Here the influence of her Malian musicians is quite pronounced, with the additions of the balafon, djembe and bara percussive instruments. Risser fused the customs of European orchestral sounds with the rhythms of West Africa without diminishing either tradition. The wilderness of Eurythmia is Africa, Europe, and if you press you ear to the ground, your own backyard. The hypnotic pulse of "So (Horse In Bambara)" is populated by pops and beeps of synthesizers and an electric guitar that is accented by trumpet, trombone, and saxophone. The parade of percussion gives way to the gentle Risser piano-led "Sa (Snake In Bambara)" with Antonin-Tri Hoang's saxophone solo in dialogue. The music shares the same perspective as the

Sun Ra

piano
1914 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Sun Ra Arkestra. "Soyayya" layers Ra's romanticism over a blanket of percussion, and "G?mse (Chamois In German)" applies the same kind of orchestral surge. While the impulse here comes from European jazz and West African music, the sound is inescapably universal.

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Track Listing

Intro; So (Horse In Bambara); Sa (Snake In Bambara); Desert Rouge (Red Desert In French); G?mse (Chamois In German); Harmattan (African Hot Wind); Petit Soir (Twilight In Mali); Soyayya (Love In Hausa).

Personnel

Eve Risser

piano

Antonin-Tri Hoang

saxophone, alto

Sakina Abdou

saxophone, tenor

Gr��goire Tirtiaux

saxophone, baritone

Nils Ostendorf

trumpet

Mathias M��ller

trombone

Emmanuel Scarpa

drums

Fanny Lasfargues

bass, electric

Additional Instrumentation

Eve Risser: compositions, voice; Nils Ostendorf: analog synthesizer; Antonin-Tri Hoang: analog synthesizer; Emmanuel Scarpa: voice; Tatiana Paris: electric guitar, voice; Oph��lia Hi��: balafon, bara, voice; M��lissa Hi��: balafon, djembe, voice; Oumarou Bambara: djembe, bara.

Album information

Title: Eurythmia | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Clean Feed Records

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