JACQUES THOLLOT

The album' title is so long that if I typed it in here, you'd all have hit the 'escape' button to read something more interesting before arriving at this second sentence.

'Quand Le Son?blah, blah' sounds like a one man band with everything being played at the same time by 'Mr Thollot'. The bloke was a decent jazz drummer, but his piano work is equally as impressive. Impressive in that way where there's little or no tune or rhythm that only Jazz musicians seem to pull off without any criticism forthcoming.

Jacques appears to be one guy that loved flanger effects over drums and he goes off on a rampaging 'Captain Caveman' solo drum attack on 'track 6'

There's not much humming and singing going on in my head whilst listening to this. It's all a bit free-form, directionless and avant-garde jazz for my liking. Jacques Thollot has a bizarre and unique approach the RIO genre. At times it sounds like a whole load of Bowling balls being thrown down a flight of stairs without any regular beat or semblance of tune, but the shrieked vocals add an odd dimension to this otherwise forgettable album.

This is mostly an acoustic drum based album with some wacky piano work with subtle electronic effects riddled throughout. It's quite a difficult listen and an even more awkward album to review due to it's non-linear approach.

It's tough.

Of Thollot's late 70's discography, Cinq hops is probably the best or most estimed and probably his most accessible as well. First of all there is singing (Elise Ross), but second, it's almost as if Thollot was the leader of a group as well, although giving you the names wouldn't get you very far, unless you're deeply involved in the French jazz scene. Third, this is probably the album of his most easily to classify, other than avant-garde: Jazz Rock-Zeuhl with a touch of RIO. The album's title is a play on words of the jazz syncopation with Cinq Hops, and the abstract sleeve artwork.

The first part of the album is made of longer (usually sung) tracks that are separated by shorter (from 17 seconds to 101 seconds) instrumental pieces, sometimes a single instrument, others short bizarre montage (Rush) or orchestrated bits (Rush & Grand siècle). Starting on the classical-inspired On The Mountain (the bald one is my guess), with Elise Ross' singing over an electric piano, the album startles by its succession of weird turns in musical direction with the Four Four Five Eight (time sig) of a keyboard and drum duet and once more with Turning On My Mind (probably the most spell-binding track of the album that has some definitive Zeuhl influences, thollot sounding like Vander on this track. The album's longest track Aprelude is a great 8-minutes upbeat piece of music centred on Céléa's stand-up bass (and even includes a solo) as well as Thollot's drums. Nowhere is more evident the Zeuhl influence in Elise Ross' singing than in Seven, where she's countered first, then enhanced by a soprano sax.

But now well into the flipside, the succession of longer and shorter piece is now interrupted by having two short pieces in a row, the second of which presents the wild drumbeat & percussion duo Sur 9 Temps. Gomind ventures into semi-operatic singing, accompanied with a sax and bass, somehow reminiscent of Debussy. The title track song that resumes best the album's different elements, a bit of a conclusion avant la lettre. Lumière Tourangelle borders Univers Zero and Art Zoyd's realm and the finale does the same on piano.

Although still a bizarre album by normal standard, Cinq Hops is definitely the best entry point in Thollot's discography, and certainly his best work as well, although I have yet to revisit his previous album, not heard in some 20 years and I didn't get it at the time. Here, today, I finally "get" Cinq Hops' rich realm and lack of musical barriers

First album from now-experimental instrumentalist (but mostly drummer/percussionist) Jacques Thollot, but this early 70's album is not representative of his classic phase second half of 70's era. This strangely titled album (roughly translating to throw the giraffe in the sea water, if the sound is too high-pitched) was released on the rare and experimental Futura label known for some very obscure and free form music coming from France. While the artwork gracing the cover is enticing and intriguing enough, the music is not exactly reflecting the hope raised by its cover, with some 15 instrumental tracks ranging from the short to the mid-length, a good deal of them featuring a sole instrument, but if often the drums, not necessarily a percussion instrument either, but piano and other keyboards as well.. There are some electronic noises and other bizarrenesses on some tracks, some can be a bit intriguing, others only interesting if you're a musician yourself.

It's hard to recommend this album to anyone, unless he's a fan to the musician's works, but even then such unbridled and totally unconventional music experiments, even if many or countless others albums sounds much more dissonant is impossible to take much. Anyway, this Giraffe album doesn't sound much like his more Zeuhlian mid-70's albums, which are much more recommendable.