Hervé Boghossian, John Tilbury, Mark Wastell
Archi.Texture Vol.1

The Wire

Though the punning title of French electroacoustician Hervé Boghossian’s CD is inelegant, it takes us straight to the heart of his concerns: structure and texture. Archi.Texture Vol. 1 consists of three compositions. In “Pour Piano & Ordinateur”, John Tilbury holds down the sustain pedal and plays entirely in the piano’s bass register. As improvisation it’s atypical Tilbury and, quite frankly, not terribly interesting. One can’t help wondering to what extent Boghossian’s guidelines helped or hampered him. What Boghossian does with this material is gently emphasise aspects of the piano’s shimmering harmonics. His computer processing turns them into gaseous clouds that momentarily bloom before dissolving into the aether. It’s a delicate procedure, one he manages with great subtlety. The higher register, drone-based cello track that Mark Wastell provides for “Pour Violoncelle and Ordinateur” is more immediately interesting, and Boghossian’s edits and electronic enhancements do it justice. The final composition layers the Tilbury and Wastell tracks, seemingly without embellishment. Satisfying though it is, it never amounts to more than the sum of its parts.