124CD - Carla Diratz & the Archers of Sorrow - The Scale - CD plus download
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83CD - Eclectic Maybe Band - Reflection In A Moebius Ring Mirror - CD plus download
The extraordinary, powerful and characterful French singer Carla Diratz (described by none other than Robert Wyatt as "the soulful Ms Diratz") collaborates here with composers Martin Archer and Nick Robinson to deliver an extremely diverse set which runs from out and out prog through avant-rock to improv, electronic collage and modernist chanson - "Improg" is the name we've given to this mixed up school of music. Lyrics sung in English, French and Italian ultimately present a very personal view of the world, with some nostalgia for the past but ultimately hope in the unconquerable spirit of the next generation. The band is completed by upcoming trumpet star Charlotte Keeffe and the crack rhythm section who first came together onstage as part of Archer's Anthropology Band.
Carla Diratz - vocal
Martin Archer - saxophones, keyboards, electronics
Nick Robinson - guitars
Dave Sturt - bass guitar
Adam Fairclough - drums
Charlotte Keeffe - trumpet
Jan Todd - backing vocals
Julie Archer - backing vocals
A video review by Dereck Higgins on YouTube, via this link.
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This Carla Diratz album does my head in. I’ve now had the recording several weeks, re-run it over and over on endless car journeys throughout this Covid-Winter; taken it in blocks of sound gone-midnight, the house - fridge cold, speakers shattering silence like all meditation is but memory; heard the French part-translate in the brain then fragment into Esperanto; allowed the song Mother to recall “…seven different tongues beating up like drums inside her lungs”; allowed Charlotte Keefe’s magnificent trumpet break on Merry-go-round to do away with sampling Stravinsky. The Scale is a dark bright thing, even at this late stage it could be my album of the year. Targeted to speak sorrow, Carla Diratz can’t help but somehow come across the senses as a valediction. You either take the weight of The Scale, feel it in the ears, give in to its great glory moments (title track, The nature of a child, Menhir et gemissements, Dove mi hai lasciata, Teen dance, Le chagrin, Desert prayer) or decide you’re not ready to be dismembered. In which case, better pass it on to someone you really love and let them do the deed instead. Scraps of detail: If like me your experience of Adam Fairclough’s drumming has been that of a classy jazzbuff then this recording spins a different drummer’s story. In places the kit is laid into as if decking demons; 4/4 thunder pummelled onto the Diratz vocabulary like a second vocal. And Nick Robinson’s guitars are everywhere; slicing power chords then intricate filigree followed by ‘surf’ guitar – as much Lenny Kaye as anything coming out of fusion, often sonic yet sensuous Left Bank scratching at leftfield. As usual, Mr Archer’s own instruments are blindingly unobvious, the catalyst for continual mood swings into which Charlotte Keefe’s trumpet is both siren and sound installation. Clearly though this is Carla Diratz’s album. Sung in French and English, her voice, authoritative and demanding. A songbook as diverse as this one has to be given a lot of ear-time. It re-pays with unravelling mysteries, like an orchestrated spy novel. Big music does your head in, you have been warned. - Steve Day, December 2021
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The releases on DISCUS MUSIC are getting more and more interesting, because for example the CD The Scale of the French singer CARLA DIRATZ and THE ARCHERS OF SORROW is a fascinating original sounding album that combines certain music styles I have not heard before actually. Basically it combines the unique deep soulful voice of Carla with French chanson, Avant-Garde, Progressive Rock and complex Jazz, with lyrics sung in English, French and Italian, so the finished product is an impressive combination that seems to work after several times playing the album. It’s experimental at times (Dove Mi Hai Lasciata), French chanson like (Le Sang Et Les Larmes and Le Chagrin), but also progrocking (The Scale, I Am With You and Desert Prayer) and even ‘sensational’ uptempo early 70s Psychedelic Classic rocking during Teen Dance (which even reminds me a bit of JEFFERSON AIRPLANE). There’s also some complex jazz here and there, but actually there is a lot more to discover, because this long diverse album is an interesting mixture of styles, and along with the unique voice of Carla, the CD has an own identity from start to finish. Definitely a recommended album if you want to hear something really original! - Strutter'zine
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Imagine that Captain Beefheart disbanded the Magic Band straight after Trout Mask Replica and then slipped off into the desert. By some freak of nature that I can’t explain, he returns to 2021 having magically transformed into a French woman. In this new guise she captures a band of improvising musicians and imprisons them in a recording studio. They will not be released until total weirdness has been achieved. And they succeed. Fast and bulbous indeed. - feedback from a Discus Music customer.
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It's a super strutting bad-ass proggy, jazz, power chanteuse must hear. - feedback from a Discus Music customer.
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A basic drum pattern (Adam Fairclough) grounds the opening title track into a groove as French chanteuse Carla Diratz, in a deep drawl, like a gruff Annette Peacock, semi-speaks, semi-chants probing poetic lyrics with impactful interjections from guitar (Nick Robinson), sax (Mr Archer, of course!), Dave Sturt’s probing basslines and wonderful Ratledge-like keys. You start to release also that there is a compact brass section with the impressive Charlotte Keeffe adding trumpet to proceedings. The album is worth it for this alone but there is much, much more to come, first of all, in complete contrast, the calm after the storm if you will, the first of three etudes, mostly accompanied only by fragmented pianos and melodies, while Ms Diratz takes on a role which reminds me, in feeling, of the narrated passages of that great French progressive rock group Ange- it is delivered in French you see- and passionately! The chanteuse is it turns out, multi-lingual as one of many highlights ‘Dove mi hai lasciata’ confirms later. This makes marvellous use of brass, keyboards and electronics with a bit of vocal scatting thrown in, ‘I Am With You’ is another triumph, the retro organ sound and Sturt’s inventive bass providing the backdrop for a winning combination of brass and guitar. ‘The Nature of a Child’ is another particular favourite, the sultry soulfulness of Keeffe’s trumpet overture to Robinson’s guitar arpeggios leading to a nostalgic brass treatment, a perfect foil for the singer- the attention to detail and production exemplary. ‘Merry-go-Round’ indulges in the avant-garde for a little while but the music is always rooted in melody which soon emerges, very, very atmospheric with the chanteuse in fine form. ‘Teen Dance’ and ‘Desert Prayer’ are wonderfully Crimson-ish as the music exits powerfully. ‘The Scale’ has become my essential late-night headphone listen, and, in a fanciful way, wish it could be so indefinitely, but I will move on I suppose and look back fondly to one of my musical highlights of 2021. Mr Archer and his Anthropology Band have applied the term ‘Improg’ to the music- it may well catch on! – Phil Jackson, ACID DRAGON
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No God, no Adam, no Eve, no original sin.Aus welchem Mund kommt diese schaurige Verneinung? CARLA DIRATZ? Die Tochter einer armenisch-jüdisch-griechisch-italienisch-türkisch gemischten Mutter und eines französischen Fotografen hatte schon an Can und Soft Machine, Sun Ra und Pharoah Sanders geschnuppert, als sie 1978 zu singen anfing – in Strave-Utopia (w/ Serge Bringolf), Alkemia (w/ Alain Berthe & J.C. Buire) und Change als eigenem Projekt, dieseits der Jahrtausendwende mit Colin McKellar (We Free) in Baïkal und Art Ensemble de Belleville, in The OpenJazz Trio wieder mit Buire (Offering, BBI), mit Corentin Coupe als The Electric Suite, mit No White of Moon. Mit Ex-Muffins Dave Newhouse bei “Diratz” (2017) und Manna / Mirage rückt sie immer näher. “Double Dreaming” (2018) zeigt sie mit Mark Stanley, dem Gitarristen dieses New-House-Projekts, mit Pascal Vaucel, einem Gitarristen in Paris, entstand “pRéCis.AiMaNt” (2019), wo sie Robert Wyatts 'Sea Song' anstimmt. “Reflection In A Mœbius Ring Mirror” (DISCUS 83CD) von Guy Segers' Eclectic Maybe Band führte sie dann mit Dirk Wachtelaer, Catherine Smet und Michel Deville und stupendem Zeuhl-Bass-JazzProg zu Discus. Als hätte Martin Archer nur auf ihre Reibeisenstimme gewartet, formierte er THE ARCHERS OF SORROW mit Nick Robinson, dem Gitarristen von Das Rad, der Trompeterin Charlotte Keeffe, Dave Sturt (Jade Warrior, Gong) am Bass, Adam Fairclough an den Drums, ihm selber an Sax, Keys & Electronics. Damit sie zu krassem Improg, flammendem Jazzrock, schillerndem Ichweißnichtwas als Seelenschwester von Nico, Elizabeth S., Annie Anxiety wie eine Wölfin mit kreidiger Zunge The Scale (DISCUS 124CD) singt, 8 Sibyllen-Songs, dazu – pianobetropft - 'Le sang et les larmes', 'La digue' & 'Le chagrin' sowie 'Menhir et gémissements' und auf italienisch 'Dove mi hai lasciata'. Als erstes nennt sie die Menschheit eine unheilbar kranke Bande schamloser Raffer, Mordbrenner und Kettenschmiede. Der Schmerz in den Blut-, Tränen- und Flammenflüssen vergeht erst in der Asche. Doch selbst auf dem Müllberg droben erlischt die Sehnsucht nicht nach blauem Horizont, und diesem Knochenbündel kann man doch nur ein Wiegenlied summen. Denn selbst mit nur Schwarzem Meer vor Augen und einem Vulkan im Rücken kann Diratz es nicht lassen, ihre Worte als Flaschenpost schwimmen und segeln zu lassen. Bei 'Mother' sieht sie zu gepresster Trompete ihre Mutter – exiled, declassed, displaced – Tränen nach den Dardanellen vergießen. Sie besingt die Deiche, Leuchtfeuer und Gezeiten in unserem Herzen, zu bluesiger Trompete und Baritongitarre sich selbst als Mutter Erde Kind, als junges Tier not yet defined / a fox, a wolf, a wild cat, / fearless of seasons, / of wars, of treasons, als Verlassene unter zerbrochenen Säulen. No goal, no direction, no path, no soul, no heaven, no hell, aber trotz allem bassdumpfen Trott versessen auf 'nen weiteren Ritt auf dem Karussell, in rockender Wallung versessen auf Tanzen Tanzen Tanzen. Stöhnen, Lügen und Wunderworte, das Sternengewölbe verschlingt sie. Soll man den Kummer ertränken, bevor man darin ertrinkt? My weary eyes, are they molecules of an improbable oasis?Man dreht sich im Kreis, am Nasenring von Nostalgie und Fata Morganas. Großes Pathos, durch grandiose Musik mit gehörigem Biss und phantastischen Kontrasten von Baritonsax und akustischer Gitarre, schnoddriger Trompete und fräsendem Gitarrenzahn. Vor allem 'Menhir' zieht da alle Register, und Diratz performt das mit artaudscher Groteske und Werwolfgrazie, sollen die Bilitis-Elfen nur kichern. Bei 'Desert prayer' röhren zuletzt nochmal alle Rohre, wenn schon wasted undweary, dann in Galopp, Keeffe schmettert, Archer pustet Bariton, jubiliert Soprano, Milch und Honig, wir kommen! - BAD ALCHEMY
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The songs touch upon a diversity of styles reflecting the range of Diratz’. ‘Le sang et les larmes’is a chanson. ‘I am with you’ is more like a pop song. ’La digue’ is a very silenced piece of voice and just piano. ‘Dove mi hai lasciata’ is a melodic song. ‘Menhir er gémissements’ is an experimental work spaced with noisy elements. ‘Merry-go-round’ round’ starts with a long and highly improvised opening section with an impressive trumpet work Charlotte Keefe before it continues with a slow beat. In each song we have the characteristic throaty and lived voice of Diratz singing powerfully in French, Italian or English. An original voice! - Dolf Mulder, VITAL WEEKLY http://www.vitalweekly.net/1314.html
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It is indeed soulful, grown up music for grown up times - Dave Larder https://www.laamb.co.uk/
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For French singer Carla Diratz‘s latest album, she has enlisted two of the Discus family to conjure some surprisingly diverse soundscapes for her smoky, timeworn vocalising. Both Martin Archer and Nick Robinson are hardy veterans, capable of providing the perfect backdrops and these veer from the gentlest of piano laments to forceful, driven, post-prog whirlwinds. In fact, the opening two tracks show the full range of their craft, with the title track opener being a dark and dramatic post-punk-prog highlight; its sinuous, vibrant bass guitar courtesy of Dave Sturt, amongst which Nick injects squirls of spiny guitar. Carla’s voice is a wild thing, part spoken, throaty and soulful, the emotion always welling up. The track length allows all the players to inject some of their personality during the breaks from vocals, with meandering organ adding to the swell of sound. “Le Sang Et Les Larmes” in comparison is a deft improv piano piece, sparse but soothing, allowing Carla’s emotive voice plenty of room to unfurl. You can almost imagine her leaning tearfully against the piano, brandy to hand, watching the hands of the clock revolve. The album continues like this, not allowing the listener any opportunity for second guessing. The propulsive rhythm and staccato guitar of “I Am With You” is really enjoyable and vibrant, Carla’s words shimmying around the rock-solid rhythm, keys and horns folding their way around her like encouraging friends. “Mother” gives Charlotte Keeffe a chance to interact with Carla, her trumpet playful and almost folky, lending a soft feel to the emotional and seemingly personal words. When the piano is introduced, it is incredibly thoughtful. Its subtlety allows Carla to travel at will, but always with a sense of comfort for her soul bearing. Although sometimes couched in an impressionistic manner, the words often burn, that sensation of personal exploration ever present. There is no feeling of forcing these tales, just of them being natural extensions of a complex personality. Across the album, the mix of languages is beguiling, Carla’s command of English good, but the twisting of familiar words is really pleasurable; while the tracks delivered in French, like “Menhir Et Gemissements”, swathed in a veil of extemporised howling, settle naturally on the ears. You could almost describe “The Nature Of A Child” as dark, prog-Americana with the most straightforward rhythm so far, the guitar shimmering, aided by the massed ranks of horns with loads of staggering reverb, and the poetry is lovely: “…a lonely child, an unknown flower…”. There is plenty of organ in the dreamy and distant “Dove Mi Hai Lasciata”, everything adrift in an impressionistic wash save the voice that welcomes the sax as it chases the jazzy guitar. In all, this is a fantastic selection, even stretching towards the playful yet melancholy Christmassy feeling of “Le Chagrin – Etude 3”, the just-awoken stumble of the piano an antidote to the final track’s jazzy Birthday Party workout. The drumming is driving and divine, and the sense of the whole band giving its utmost is all-consuming and a perfect point on which to end. The sense of drama and melancholy but strength and compassion bleeds through the whole album, and makes it an essential taster of Carla’s worldview. Well recommended. - Mr Olivetti, FREQ
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Outside looking in, an errand being slowly treads on trespassed land, along with deeply wise spirits, reflecting partly muzzled rebels, so eager to spill the truth, side by side, with throats not yet slashed, expelling demons, and crowds of free improvisations, ambience, stark landscapes, opposite lush stage, murmuring the important vibrations from the framework, worming every ounce of it out... THIS is "The Scale" with Carla Diratz with The Arches of Sorrow, on the ever wonderful Discus Music label. There be something wise coming your way. A defiant work, among so many challenging releases by French vocalists Carla Diratz, this may require big gloves, extended arms, and big broad imagination to pull in, and partake as needed. Far beyond earthly comparisons of Nico, other avant transients only slightly resembling moonbeamers, and farscape explorers from decades quickly past; Diratz has a voice all her own, in the huge atmosphere not yet measured. Knowing for a fact, Carla does nothing without feeling it, taking it deep, and deciding as a supreme actor, that she can make it a personal and fully spiritual experience, each release she is involved in, is a treat, for our ears only. With a marvelous ensemble of musicians to make this master piece occur, we have Carla Diratz - vocal/ Martin Archer - saxophones, keyboards, electronics/ Nick Robinson - guitars/ Dave Sturt - bass guitar/ Adam Fairclough - drums/ Charlotte Keeffe - trumpet/ Jan Todd - backing vocals/ and Julie Archer - backing vocals. A listening experience is not just a sentence, but a set of emotions spurting an alien light show all around your room, spitting back the contrast of neon to dark colors into your head. A combination of sneaky lanterns and hidden blades, to keep your senses alert, and quick to prepare this rare imbibement. Her involvement of Eclectic Maybe Band is enough for newcomers to jump at the chance to find nuances past the known universe. This group of magnificent musicians are some of the finest framers of brilliant music on the planet. Few people such as Martin Archer see the depths of others as he does. The styles of music thrown underneath Carla's throaty and instantly expressive voice, is nearly invisible, as the most brilliant actors keep themselves void of the presence, as they speak their lines. The holy grail of the entire recording is made up of this very core, the sublime, and the arrangements from the most professional artists, to allow Ms Carla Diratz to move her voice through subterranean layers too deep to mine otherwise. Bubbling up in slow motion, generating skywards stardust, that rains back down on only the lucky, it is most certain that you have never been present to another recording equal to this, or even anything exactly parallel. Expect a different beauty, a freshly dug treasure. and something of an underground burial that came from way up there, where no one else has seen so far. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and on my TOP CHOICES list of 2021. - ©Reviewed by Lee Henderson 3 - 01 - 2022 https://www.bigbeautifulnoise.com/carla-diratz?fbclid=IwAR1POMghCetEnln-zUYbgVCJN1mHmN0CaIRdk5gqoAhHKoeHNvqUH6u599M
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More Martin Archer here, but this is truly a Carla Diratz showcase. And this album just straight up rocks. Archer and Nick Robinson coined a term for this particular thread of music, “improg,” which so perfectly captures the feel of the album, adding too much commentary risks spoiling the vibe. Drummer Adam Fairclough and bassist Dave Sturt kick the album off with a romping stomp, and Diratz floats in with one of the most dazzling, captivating vocal turns on the album. An incredible singer, Diratz is featured on albums by another Discus mainstay, Eclectic Maybe Band. Here, her rhythmic dexterity melds beautifully with Archer and Robinson’s compositions. The amazing trumpet player Charlotte Keeffe rounds out the band, along with Julie Archer and Jan Todd on backing vocals. Diratz leans into vulnerability, and Keeffe amazingly plays with a stunningly emotional deftness. The Scale feels very much like a song cycle for our times, with heady lyrics that explore modernity, motherhood, childhood, loss, glee, and, most often, wonder. Prepare to spend hours with this one, to uncover layers, yes, but more importantly to escape into its soundworld. - Lee Rice Epstein, The Free Jazz Collective - https://www.freejazzblog.org/
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Carla Diratz lebt derzeit in Paris und ist wohl auch Französin. Ansonsten ist nicht allzuviel über sie herauszufinden. Offenbar ist sie schon seit Längerem als Sängerin aktiv, in eher avantgardistischen Bereichen zwischen Jazz, Rock und Minimal Music, so hört man. Auf Tonträger ist ihre Stimme aber erst seit der zweiten Hälfte der zweiten Jahrzehnts des neuen Jahrtausends nachweisbar, scheint’s.
Anfang des zweiten Jahrzehnts des nämlichen Jahrtausends startete sie ein Projekt mit Martin Archer und Nick Robinson (von u.a. Das Rad), die sie wohl aufgrund ihrer Beteiligung an einigen Stücken der Eclectic Maybe Band kennen gelernt hat. Das erste Ergebnis der Zusammenarbeit erschien mit dem hier rezensierten "The Scale" im Dezember 2021 bei Discus Music. Die rauchig-kantige Stimme der Diratz steht im Zentrum der Musik, wie eine weibliche Version von Don Van Vliet alias Captain Beefheart. In English, Französisch und Italienisch ist sie zu Gange, eher rezitierend Sprechsingend, aber sehr kraftvoll und ausdrucksstark, ohne aber zu exaltiert oder gar kreischend zu Deklamieren. Dazu erklingt progressive Musik, voluminös-elektronisch meist, angejazzt, freier klangmalend, kernig rockend, retro-canterburyartig ... eigentlich so, wie man sie aus dem Hause Archer kennt, bestimmt von Tastensounds, E-Gitarrenklängen, allerlei Gebläse und der Rhythmusfraktion. Mal elegisch schwebend, mal getragen rockend, mal jazzig wogend, mal hektisch wuselnd gleiten die Klänge voran, manchmal auch nur bestehend aus Stimme und fragiler Begleitung, oft von einem Piano. Bisweilen gibt es auch retroprogressive Einsprengsel, hallende Mellotronschübe und soft-machine-artig-repetitive Orgeleinlagen oder perlende E-Pianoläuffe. Anderes knarzt sperrig, verzerrt und angeschrägt, wie allgemein das Organ Carla Diratz’. Irgendwo zwischen Retroprog, Neopsychedelik, Soundscape, Jazzrock und Freiformatig-Avantgardistischem bewegt sich die Musik, die alles in allem sehr abwechslungsreich und vielschichtig gestaltet ist. "The Scale" klingt ein wenig wie ein Robert-Wyatt-Album, allerdings mit ganz anderem, wenn auch geistesverwandtem charakteristischem Damengesang. Wer letzteren schätzt und sich solchen in einem retro-canterbury-avantgardistisch-elektronisch-rockig-bizarren Soundgewand vorstellen kann, die/der sollte hier einmal reinhören. Progressivität, Klangmalerei und Expressivität verschmelzen hier zu einem ganz besonderen homogenen Ganzen. Toll! - Achim Breiling, BABYBLAUE SEITEN
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