JEAN-PHILIPPE GOUDE
"ROCK DE CHAMBRE"
("CHAMBER ROCK")

With Chamber Rock, the Baroque theatre of Jean-Philippe Goude comes to life with new colours, and his beloved characters – in other words, his favourite instruments – resound with a different voice. Following the example of a walker adventuring light-heartedly into the midst of ruins (Picnic Music), the air becomes electric, metallic flashes zigzag across the sky of the melody which takes on another dimension. At the piano, he continues to express the deep nostalgia of sentiments, while it is left to the violins, often in unison with wind instruments, to give voice to a feeling of plenitude. But there is more than electricity in the air, it becomes even richer with a new musical substance: storms of drums, attacks by violins, electrical and acoustic skirmishes, gusts of concrete music and sheets of torn sounds. The picnic will end in a storm.Accepting the touch of musicians such as Paul Meyer, François Salque and Bill Bruford, or receiving the support of Gilbert Audin, Bruno Fontaine, Christophe Grindel and other instrumentalists working under the colours of the Opera of Paris or the Arts Florissants, Jean-Philippe Goude's palette has widened considerably. It is now studded with samples, open to the sounds of the world – with those strange or familiar voices emanating from distant school playgrounds or the walls of the Palais Brongniart. And certain minimalist sequences seem to indicate that this decidedly unclassifiable French musician can be classified in this basically American movement. "After including me in the Jazz department", he says with surprise, "then that of 'New Music", record sellers have ended up placing me among composers of contemporary music and here I am next to Gorecki!"Despite the classic heritage he continually proclaims, it is difficult to forget the strange sensation felt by his endings sometimes left in suspension, his deliberate incompletions, like hoped-for reprieves There is an echo, perhaps, of the abrupt form of lyricism still incarnated by a musician like Robert Fripp. "The title of this album", explains Jean-Philippe Goude, "is an ellipsis, a short cut between two poles of music that fascinate me: classic and rock. I have never chosen between one and the other but instead I have been inclined to love and criticise both of them at the same time. That is my ambivalence, and it has more than ever before affected the composition of this record."The piece that gives the record its title, the third in listening order, celebrates the marriage, until now unheard-of in the records of Jean-Philippe Goude, between rock rhythm and Baroque aesthetics. He introduces percussion in a skilful way, neither redundant nor massive, as a low and martial counterpoint – with a touch of irony – to the lightness of the Baroque oboe and the viola da gamba. The climate becomes even more intense with the heartbreaking emotion of Immer wieder (pain grieves me endlessly). There is an accomplished upsurge with La dernière marche (the last march) which in no way marks time, quite the contrary. It is most certainly one of the highlights of this record, with the combined rippling effect of the saxophones accentuating a rock fanfare so tragic that it tugs at the heartstrings. The apparent detachment of La ligne claire (the clear line) does not change atmosphere for here is one of those ritornelli that turns the senses inside out. It then continues to the cruel Lieber Hans, another of the inspired storms punctuating the album, with a superb electro-acoustic bridge leading us across to the other bank of a heady melody. Cher Hans, let us drink to our sorrows, let us drink to our joys, pain is immortal while tenacious joy clings to the memory of this life, which slips through the days without our having really lived it. The divertimento that follows, Fonquitude, will not mislead anyone, nor will the familiar words extracted from the bottom of oppressive safe boxes in L'entrain m'égoisse (the spirit egotises me). Intense and obstinate, Pensée inique (iniquitous thought) brings us back to American repetitions. To conclude, Soliloque (soliloquy) seems to go back to the start, with the accordion of La Ligne claire and the piano of Immer wieder, but in an even deeper tonality, if that were at all possible. There is an infinite violence in the reserve of the last piece, and intentional fall comes as a surprise, leaving us slightly lost but happy - with the kind of happiness that escapes gravity for an instant – suspended above the silence. 

Jean-Philippe GOUDE
"La Divine Nature des Choses"
("THE DIVINE NATURE OF THINGS")

On listening to this third album by Jean-Philippe GOUDE, we would love to surrender to the same kind of pleasure we found in his previous compositions, enjoying once more the light-heartedness that was so delectable in his second album (Ainsi de Nous, 1994) or the somber clarity of "De Anima", his first album, brought out in 1992 under the Hopi Mesa label. In fact the present work is situated at the cross-roads, between gravity and lyricism.In "The Divine Nature of Things", Jean-Philippe GOUDE returns to his musical roots, the world of "rock chamber music" as he himself describes it. This new composition is more contemporary and more moving than ever. Its title places it under the aegis of Hadrian, the powerful Roman emperor, a man of exceptional wisdom. Marguerite Yourcenar's novel "The Memoirs of Hadrian" published in 1951 describes his gradual progress from the "small soft wandering soul" of his youth to the "firm ground" (tellus stabilita) of his mature years.In his art as well as his life, Jean-Philippe GOUDE has clearly perceived the "divine nature of things". This is revealed by the harshness of some of his new compositions. But while there are passages of daring dissonance there are, almost paradoxically, others of great warmth. This is the fruit of the vast experience as a musician that he has behind him. He has studied classical music, played with jazz and rock groups, made studio recordings, written incidental music, etc... . During the last few years, as well as film music and music for the stage (for Carolyn Carlson, Michel Portal...) he has composed many theme tunes - brief pieces stamped with consummate elegance. True to his individual style, he has developed a rare faculty for imbuing each instant with a sense of simplicity an intimacy.He brings new energy, or perhaps I should say new-found energy, to his interpretation. Undoubtedly, this is music for a group, just asking to be heard live in concert. The collaboration between the composer and his musicians is clearly closer than ever, but this is not the only explanation for the undeniable development. Jean-Philippe Goude was born in 1952. Does he feel a certain nostalgia for the "progressive rock" or "jazz-rock" that he played at the beginning of his career, in the seventies ? This is not really the case. What he particularly remembers from those generous, free and easy years, where seriousness sometimes won out over virtuosity, is genuine energy and a sense of sincerity.There is also a certain austere quality in this album, which is perhaps to be expected in the light of the epigraph taken from Marguerite Yourcenar. We all know that simplicity and humility are the fruit of long, patient work. This is the only way to arrive at the essential heart of things. Goude appears to have opted to eliminate all superfluous embellishment from his musical language. Many sections are all the more impelling as a result. We are nearer to the bone, the wood, than to the flower or the "fiore" which gives us in musical terms the Italian "fioritura" or florid ornamentation. However, although the composer has decided to follow his own inspiration, irrespective of trends and fashions,This does not mean that he indulges in melancholy, unless there is perhaps a kind of bracing melancholy to be found here. There is continued lightness of touch in more than one sense. The instrumentation is more adventurous than in the previous albums, mingling samplers and acoustic instruments with the marimba, the viola da gamba and a glass organ. This is music that speaks to us. Many of these compositions twine about us and around us like a convolvulus, until one fine morning we wake up and find that they have become part of our own private universe. This is music for an imaginary film, to take us traveling along the tracks of memory, celebrating the beauty of the world.These are difficult times which bring us face to face with the "divine nature of things". When we consider Jean-Philippe Goude's music more deeply, we are compelled to acknowledge that it reaches out beyond us, that it evokes the smiling face of tragedy, the sweetness of the passing days and years. It also reminds us that we must profit from the energy to be had from each moment of sunlight, from each human glance. Did I mention an imaginary film ? Perhaps this is indeed the film of our life. 

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