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Régis Huby 4tet: Equal Crossing
ByHuby's third release is a concept album inspired by French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss seminal booklet Race and History in which he claimed that "All cultural progress depends on a coalition of cultures" and encouraged the diversity of cultures. The title of the album, as well as the titles of Huby's compositions may be impressionistic metaphors referencing the mass immigration phenomena that all European countries experience in recent years.
Huby's 4tet features guitarist Marc Ducret, keyboardist Bruno Angelini and percussionist Michael Rabbia, all, like Huby, are opinionated, forward-thinking musicians who always attempt to bend and expand musical conventions. All play lead roles as equal partners, their voices intertwined organically as they alternating between acoustic instruments and effects-laden electric ones. The 4tet sonic dynamics sounds at times as visiting atmospheric prog-rock terrains, the fusion pyrotechnics of influential groups as Mahavishnu Orchestra, but charges the intricate compositions with an open, often even chamber-jazz improvising approach.
The album is divided into three consecutive movements. The first one stresses a sense of emotional urgency full of fears and doubt, the second expresses the rapid change of moods and sceneries of the new, daily experiences and the third radiates a more relaxed feeling, still a fragile one of hope and shelter. All are executed with great passion and impressive pathos, emphasizing a sharp sense of invention and imagination and full of moving beauty and elegance.
Track Listing
Movement 1: Part 1 - Faith & Doubt; Part 2 - Doubt & Fear. Movement 2: Part 1 - Are we from …?; Part 2 - The Synthesis of Now-here; Part 3 - The Crossing of Appearances; Movement 3: Part 1 - Imaginary Bridges; Part 2 - Horizon’s Crossing.
Personnel
Régis Huby: electroacoustic tenor violin, electric violin, electronics. Marc Ducret: acoustic and electric guitars; Bruno Angelini: piano, Fender Rhodes, mini moog; Michael Rabbia: percussion, electronics.
Album information
Title: Equal Crossing | Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Abalone Productions