Recorded at Saint-Merry church (Paris) on june 28th 2018, by Baptiste Chouquet
Mastering: Pierre-Henry Etchandy


Sillons - Reflets
Patricia Bosshard
Onceim / CoÔ

track listing
Sillons (Patricia Bosshard, 2018)
Reflets (Patricia Bosshard, 2018)

Onceim (Orchestre de Nouvelles Créations, Expérimentations et Improvisations Musicales)
Contrebasses : Sébastien Béliah, Benjamin Duboc, Frédéric Marty
Violoncelles : Félicie Bazelaire, Anaïs Moreau, Deborah Walker
Altos : Cyprien Busolini, Elodie Gaudet, Julia Robert
Accordéon : Pierre Cussac
Guitares : Giani Caserotto, Jean-Sébastien Mariage
Percussions : Antonin Gerbal, Julien Loutelier
Piano : Alvise Sinivia
Electronique : Arnaud Rivière, Diemo Schwarz
Clarinettes : Jean-Brice Godet, Joris Rühl
Saxophone soprano : Stéphane Rives
Saxophones altos : Pierre-Antoine Badaroux, Carmen Lefrançois
Saxophone ténor : Bertrand Denzler
Saxophone baryton : Benjamin Dousteyssier
Euphonium : Jean Daufresne
Trompette : Louis Laurain

CoÔ (Ensemble des cordes frottées de l’Onceim)
Contrebasses : Sébastien Béliah, Benjamin Duboc, Frédéric Marty
Violoncelles : Félicie Bazelaire, Anaïs Moreau, Deborah Walker
Altos : Elodie Gaudet, Julia Robert
Violons : Cyprien Busolini, Patricia Bosshard

Listen Sillons extract

Listen Reflets extract

texte de pochette
chroniques
reviews
   
 
texte de pochette
 

Avec Sillons je suis allée à la rencontre de chacun des musicien.nes afin d’enregistrer ce que je nommerais une cellule-cœur: Un son aimé, un geste, une petite phrase. La récolte fructueuse m’a permis de créer un champ de 27 sillons, petites rigoles profondes prêtes à se transformer subtilement au fil du temps.
Avec ces divers sillons, j’ai composé une pièce répétitive, envoûtante, qui, dans sa forme, évolue de l'individu au grand orchestre en passant par des groupes et sous-groupes réunis par affinités de matériau, de timbre, de son. Il en résulte une matière orchestrale d’une richesse inouïe, un champ de possibles où chacun des musicien.nes ne joue qu’avec sa cellule, malaxée, creusée et associée à d’autres cellules.

La composition Reflets s'articule autour des harmoniques. Les instruments à cordes frottées engendrent beaucoup d'harmoniques, ce qui constitue une de leurs richesses et la spécificité de leurs timbres. J'ai analysé quelles harmoniques ressortent suivant le mode de jeu : archet à mi-chemin entre le chevalet et la touche (habituel), archet près du chevalet (ponticello) et archet proche de la touche. J'ai redistribué ces harmoniques au sein de l'ensemble, jouées à différentes octaves, en tant que notes, en tant qu'harmoniques ou encore ponticello, générant ainsi de nouvelles harmoniques. Les modes de jeu sont définis par la volonté de créer une atmosphère qui oscille entre affirmation et suggestion, menés par une gestuelle répétitive qui laisse une part d'improvisation à l'interprète quant au son plein ou harmonique.

Patricia Bosshard

 

 
Chroniques
 

Les Sillons sont creusés par l'ONCEIM (Orchestre de Nouvelles Créations, Expérimentations et Improvisations Musicales), les Reflets sont renvoyés par l'Ensemble des cordes frottées de l'ONCEIM, CoÔ, et le tout est subtilement ordonnancé par la violoniste, et pour l'occasion compositrice, Patricia Bosshard. Pour les deux pièces, la violoniste explique le processus de création sur les notes de pochette : pour Sillons, elle a rencontré chacun des membres de la formation afin d'enregistrer « une cellule-cœur », « un son aimé, un geste, une petite phrase », créant « un champ de 27 sillons » qui lui ont permis de composer une pièce répétitive. Tandis que « la composition Reflets s'articule autour des harmoniques. Les instruments à cordes frottées engendrent beaucoup d’harmoniques, ce qui constitue une de leurs richesses et la spécificité de leurs timbres » ; elle a donc « analysé quelles harmoniques ressortent suivant le mode de jeu : archet à mi-chemin entre le chevalet et la touche (habituel), archet près du chevalet (ponticello) et archet proche de la touche » ; elle a ensuite « redistribué ces harmoniques au sein de l'ensemble, jouées à différentes octaves, en tant que notes, en tant qu'harmoniques ou encore ponticello, générant ainsi de nouvelles harmoniques ». S'il me paraît important de citer sans vergogne la violoniste, c'est avant tout pour tenter un peu de percer le secret d'une création dominée par la menace. Tout au long de Sillons, tout est au bord de craquer, de claquer, comme un ciel obscurci par les nuages dont on attend d'un instant à l'autre la foudre et le déluge. Tout se forme donc lentement, de frottements imperceptibles en percussions irrévocables, on le sent, on le sait, tout va bien finir par nous assaillir. Les harmonies décuplent au gré de l'entrée des instruments, mais si tout grandit, c'est d'un seul tenant, rendant donc indéfinissable chaque son, mais donnant à chaque seuil passé un supplément d'ampleur. Ainsi, la pièce ne cesse d'enfler, comme des entrelacs de nuages, qui passent du blanc au gris, du gris à l'anthracite, comme ouvrant la voie au cataclysme, mais ... Reflets, c'est l'interstice au cœur des cumulonimbus. Ici, les frottements parlent aux flottements. Tout devient beau, et s'ouvre lentement vers la lumière. Contrebasses, violoncelles, violons et altos balaient patiemment l'horizon, chassant la menace précédente de part et d'autre. Le corps de la pièce s'étend, miroitant ainsi d'une lumière venue d'en haut, et une fois encore, la formation donne une ampleur remarquable à la composition de Patricia Bosshard, avec une touche supplémentaire d'intensité qui sur sa dernière partie ne semble pas connaître de limite. Remarquablement enregistré, ce disque donne à visiter les méandres du ciel, ses colères et ses éclaircies, le tout vécu de l'intérieur, depuis l'œil d'un cyclone qui rend au monde, après son passage, ce qu'il a de meilleur : le silence.
Laurent Nerzic l Revue & Corrigée l Décembre 2021

 

 
Reviews
 

The Paris-based ensemble Onceim (Orchestre de nouvelles créations, expérimentations et improvisations musicales) and the sub-group CoÔ (Ensemble des cordes frottées de l’Onceim) consisting of the stringed instrument section of the ensemble have been assiduously dedicating themselves to fostering a challenging repertoire of contemporary composition, often incorporating improvisational strategies. They’ve performed and recorded pieces by composers/musicians Peter Ablinger, Jérôme Noetinger, Stephan O’Malley, Eliane Radigue, and John Tilbury as well as members Frédéric Blondy, Sébastien Béliah, and Bertrand Denzler. Their recent release captures two pieces by violinist and ensemble member Patricia Bosshard, one for the full ensemble and one for the string group. Bosshard is afforded the opportunity to bring together her interests in composition, improvisation, and electro-acoustic investigation in the pieces, each composed in collaboration with the participating musicians. Using that core material, the respective ensembles weave together timbrally-rich collective sonic explorations.
For Sillons (Furrows) Bosshard met with each of the 27 members of Onceim to record what she calls “une cellule-cœur,” a favorite sound, gesture, or phrase. From those core components, she created “a field of 27 furrows, small deep rills ready to subtly transform over time,” starting with individual sounds and interlacing them through various sub-groups brought together by affinities of instrumental range and tonal coloration. Bosshard comments that “The result is an orchestral material of incredible richness, a field of possibilities where each of the musicians plays only with his cell, mixed, dug and associated with other cells.” Drawing on the elemental richness of strings, reeds, euphonium, trumpet, guitar, piano, percussion, accordion, and electronics, the musicians integrate stuttering phrases, fricative gusts, percussive pattering, shimmering harmonics, mercurial overtones, groaning low-end, rumbling percussion, and ambient sibilance into an enveloping whole. Over the course of 30-minutes, the piece patiently builds from the opening section where tones and textures resonate in a spare field to striated full-ensemble gradations as the various underlying kernels accrue and dissipate in changeable scrims of sound. The careful listening and collective balance is riveting, allowing a slowly-evolving, nuanced sonic world to emerge.
The 18-minute Reflets (Reflections) for CoÔ, breaks the ensemble down to a string 10tet with three double bassists, three cellists, two violists, and two violinists. For the piece, Bosshard analyzed the harmonics of the string instruments and the various ways they can be bowed. From there, she redistributed the harmonics across the ensemble in slowly shifting configurations, with repetitive cycles that leave room for the performers to improvise within the strictures of the score. Here the focus is on the way that the harmonics layer against each other and the resultant shadow harmonics that emerge. Dark arco and the thunder of plucked and struck basses progress with rapt deliberation as gauzy layers of overtones are plied, creating clouds of sound rich with the timbral variation as to where on the fingerboard the musicians choose to bow. Two-thirds of the way through, the lush sounds swell, eliciting the way that tones and harmonics beat against each other on a pipe organ. From that crescendo, the piece slowly winds down, introducing more transparency to the orchestration as voices quietly move in and out of focus against the overall ensemble. Onceim /CoÔ recordings have been consistently absorbing and this one hits that mark as well, continuing to reveal its sonic depths upon repeated listens.
Michael Rosenstein l Point of Departure l March 2022

 

2021 has given the average person many reasons to slam the door hard on its ass as the year makes its exit, but one must give credit where it’s due. This is the first year since 2017 that Potlatch Records has issued more than one album. If you’re counting, the French label issued two CDs in 2021, one in 2019, three in 2017 and nothing at all in 2018 or 2020. Quality, not quantity, is the French label’s watchword, and exploring the rich sonic possibilities of sounds made by musicians who are open to contemporary improvisational and compositional approaches is its purview. Over time, Swiss violinist Patricia Bosshard has investigated both, but the focus on these two pieces is the purposeful creation of an enveloping sonic space. 
The starting point of Sillons (Furrows) was a survey of the sounds and phrases most loved by her fellow members of Onceim (Orchestre des Nouvelles creations, experimentations et improvisations musicales). From their replies she developed personal sonic cells for each of the orchestra’s 27 members, including stuttering brass phrases, long reed multiphonics, barely-there string harmonics and bring-out-your-dead drumbeats. Over the piece’s half-hour length, each musician plays only their designated cell, and the music develops through the accumulation and recession of the component parts, which create an environment whose shifts in textural density and micro-activity are almost seasonal.  The predominance of lower frequencies and smaller gestures results in music that feels quiet at almost any volume, but acquires depth as you turn it up.
Reflets (Reflections) is a bit shorter, lasting around eighteen minutes. The piece is performed by the smaller group CoÔ, which is basically the Onceim string section. Reflets (Reflections) is a deep dive into string harmonics that can be obtained from violins, violas, cellos and double basses. Bosshard studied the different harmonics that can be obtained from each, and then arranged them in differing combinations, generating still more harmonics that result from the interactions of the instruments’ sounds. Long-bowed cellos and plucked double basses generate some sense of forward motion, but most of the music’s action derives from horizontal waxing and waning as the juxtaposition of tones induces shifts of pure and beating manifestations.
On the page, it might seem like Bosshard has given a lot of time to not a lot of material. In fact, one playthrough might feel far less than enough. Put this disc on repeat for an afternoon and see how deep you sink into its endlessly receding expanse.
Bill Meyer l Dusted l January 2022


The half-hour “Sillons” begins in a low-volume orchestral fog through which glimpses of coming motifs briefly appear. Antagonistic contrabass march. Strings’ siren whine. Scuffling saxophone. A brace of contrapuntal lines takes shape. The marching bass with string whine. Always flanked by the foreboding haze of a menagerie of extended techniques breathy and frictional. The music moves amongst other duets in similar scenarios as if in montage. Ebbing strings and war drums. Brass swells and scuffling sax. And these amass into a doomed and boisterous full-orchestra throb of growing density and volume exploding horns in full cry with big bass bombings and something like low-flying prop plane and the virulent swing of mingusian bellicose noir. But the swing is interrupted, faltering. And in its anti-climax the last third is a quiet dispersal.
The sidelong “Reflets” similarly begins as a cloud of strings in ambiguous movements. Its strokes desublimating into an ominous cadence with swelling volume and shifting yet merging overlapping relationships for a collective suspension of sounding to feel like an limitless looming expansion. Pyroclastic flow in slow motion. Underpinned by the beat kept by a belligerent contrabass, forcibly plucked strings thwacking against the neck. Again dissipating though closer to the end and to reveal birdsong as if these flying creatures were the only thing that could escape.
Keith Prosk l harmonic series l December 2021



Aside from the music, the best thing about this album is that its release signals the Potlatch label is alive and well. (Having released four CDs in 2016 and three in 2017, Potlatch released none in 2018, one in 2019, none in 2020.) In addition to this album, 2021 sees the release of a second, a duo album by Pascal Battus and Michel Doneda. Good news.
The music itself comprises two 2018 compositions—Sillons and Reflets—by violinist Patricia Bosshard, who was born in Switzerland, studied classical music in Montreal then composition and electroacoustics in Geneva, then jazz in Lausanne. The two pieces are, respectively, played by the 26-member orchestra Onceim (Orchestra des Nouvelles Creations, Experimentations et Improvisations Musicales)—which includes such experienced improvisers as Bertrand Denzler, Stephane Rives and Jean-Sebastien Mariage—and by the string ensemble CoO; Bosshard plays violin in both. This means that she knew the musicians she was writing for as she had frequently played alongside them. Sillons runs for thirty-and-a-half minutes, Reflets for eighteen-and-a-half. So, two different pieces for two very different ensembles.
Opening to the sound of slow resounding percussion, Sillons evolves steadily without any sudden movements or surprises along the way. The number of players in Onceim ensure that there are enough instruments present to easily fill out the soundscape. To Bosshard's credit, she uses them sparingly and sensibly so that they never sound as if they get in each other's way. Throughout, the heartbeat of the piece is provided by that resounding percussion, with other instruments layered above the pulse. Despite the presence of those improvisers, none of the music here sounds improvised; instead, everything sounds planned, with everyone knowing what they are doing, and all of the component parts combining together into an entrancing whole, one which handsomely repays repeated listening.
Although it is very different to Sillons, Reflets does have its similarities, despite all the instruments being strings. For instance, Bosshard makes good use of the three double basses at her disposal to lay down a solid foundation, with resounding bass sounds recurring throughout. Again, all the players contribute to the totality, with everyone doing their part and no one noticeably dominating. Together, the two tracks make this an album which will stand the test of time and merit frequent listening. Yes, Potlatch is back with a vengeance...
John Eyles l All About Jazz l November 2021