Guillaume Orti/Stéphane Payen — Volume I

Whilst the notion of a duo both playing the same instruments might sound boring, restrictive, or monotone, I’m a big fan of such pairings; they can focus the performers - and listeners - on an instrument’s range and potential, resulting in a concentration that rewards both parties. Here, Guillaume Orti and Stéphane Payen both exclusively play alto saxophones - though Payen does also deploy a straight alto saxophone - across 14 tracks, amounting to nearly an hour of music.

The concentration of a same-instrument duo is even further narrowed on Volume I, as each track would appear to be composed to pursue one particular idea or theme. So, for example, the first piece, ‘Hijacking 2’ - ‘a transformation of a two-voice canon from the Musikalisches Opfer by J.S. Bach’ - is indeed tightly composed lines of counterpoint, with concerns that are wholly melodic and harmonic; whereas ‘Guide Tones’ - ‘voice as a generator of vibration’ is sound orientated and based on extended saxophone techniques, and ‘Ranging’ - of which there are three variations, each ‘focusing on the range of the instrument and its timbral qualities’ - also does what it says on the tin. The cumulative effect is rather like a programme of studies - in the spirit of, for example, Luciano Berio’s Sequenza series. In this respect it becomes less engaging for me, or at least less consistently engaging; a simple hour of Orti and Payen improvising would probably have been better received here - however, there’s little point in selfishly criticising the duo for not creating an album that exists only in my imagination. So, in many respects, Volume I is not an album designed for my untrained ears. Treated as sound, though, there are wonderful passages and moments, not least on the unison lines of ’The Harmolodic Thing’ which ‘explores variations on how we perceive a single pitch,’ or the sparkling movements of ‘Ring Modulator’ - ‘what is injected is audible; no electronics used’ - where the duo is joined by Sylvain Thévenard on crotales.

Volume I is hardboiled from the off, in a calculated, rigorous fashion rather than any blistering histrionics - though there are precisely controlled moments of noise and dissonance. ‘Control’ is perhaps the key term here, as Orti and Payen play together with such precision that I have to assume that all pieces are written compositions. The tracks demand close listening, but I have to say that I have enjoyed Volume I as ‘background music’ with moments jumping out at the ear. I doubt very much that it was intended to be consumed this way, but someone possessing a greater knowledge of the nuts and bolts of music, and an ear for modern composition, would unlock much more from this.