by Jan Opdebeeck

Tazartès’ music draws elements from a wide diversity of traditions. On a record such as the theater soundtrack “Jeanne” (2007) one can often discern certain points of reference: preeminently expressive genres such as rock music (“premier mouvement”), opera, singer-songwriter, a traditional folk song, but also lounge-like drum ‘n’ bass, and atmospheric abstraction. Especially the voice is by no means restricted to one genre: it growls, vibrates, wavers, bellows, murmurs, shifts between speech and singing, continues to utter undefined tones and varies. At times, the words stay intact, at other times, the usual semantics disappear into tone. It is remarkable to notice how the production is in line with the respective genres, resulting in consciously made shrill/echoing/pseudo-radio friendly/straightforward sounds. Incidentally, the idea of the musicality of speech savors strongly of “The Letter” (1943) by Harry Partch, in which he reads a letter from a friend who has just been released from jail, with emphatic intonation accompanied by and alternated with music. Partch’ way of reading is a mix of speech and singing while making clear use of the tragicomic content of the letter.

In the well-constructed “Voyage à l’Ombre” (1997), Tazartès uses a more integrated approach. Throughout the major part of the piece, several voices are being juxtaposed, with one voice or a group of voices often repeating a melody or variations thereon, being looped, or with one of the voices being a speaking voice – or laughing extensively in a loud melodious manner. Sometimes Tazartès uses poetic texts, or variations on a word in ordinary intonations, but usually speech, singing, and music lose their identity as it were, only to become absorbed in the abstract, choral composition. This is accentuated by the music which is usually electronic, making it possible to echo even traditional rhythms in a repetitive synthesizer pattern by means of the multi-layered production and the (mild) electronic manipulation of the voices.

The cut and paste aestheticism, the combination of electronics with “found sounds”, either distorted or not, the fascination for the voice and speaking language, the sound manipulation, the use of repetition and loops – it has all been elaborated inventively in Tazartès’ early piece “Transports” (1980). "Transports" is an intense and dense montage of industrial sounds flowing over a tapestry of cut and manipulated voices into a spectrum of electronics. And although it is quite possible to approach Tazartès from a purely modernist perspective by way of style research, one can never escape the emotional value of his work. The first piece of “Transports”, which is very different in style from the rest, already sets the tone: a two-part piano piece in minor with an initial repetitive motif as the basis against which a second melody crawls up, wavering, stammering and tripping over itself as it were. “Transports” is a dark, jagged record which maybe even stages a social reality; a feeling which is evoked by the (trying, aggressive, shying…) way of speaking and singing, and the diversity of contexts (which are provided with a social charge) and manipulations. In addition, there are the distorted sounds (which often die away, are squeezed, and drowned out – at particular moments) and the surprising production often infringing brutally on everything happening earlier. Finally, Tazartès uses unusual and unexpected juxtapositions, for instance, ordinary voices and a rising, shrill electronic tone, looped church bells and cut up and manipulated takes of children singing, or an Arabic wind instrument with a mechanical industrial rhythm and the whistling of buzzing electronics.

Tazartès is a self-educated man, who claims he had never heard any avant-garde music when he recorded his debut record “Diaspora” (1977). In The Wire he stated: “My music is like human nature, which is paradoxical.” And: “if somebody falls over, you laugh. But he has to fall over for real. If he’s pretending to fall over, nobody laughs. When it’s completely serious, then it’s funny.” Indeed, one can view all compositions by Tazartès as paradoxical, open, and uprooted. To my taste, his strongest pieces are without defined nucleus, also when it comes to style (composition, tone) rendering them all the more elusive and fascinating.

This interview is conducted in conjunction with the upcoming PAUZE festival in The Netherlands & Belgium organized by (K-RAA-K), November 13-15. More information HERE.