Walter Faehndrich, Christy Doran, Remo Schnyder, & Samuel Wettstein: Âme Sèche

On a baker’s dozen of unnamed tracks, the quartet of Walter Faehndrich, Christy Doran, Remo Schnyder, & Samuel Wettstein gets down to some serious business on Âme Sèche. The freely improvised music of Faehndrich on viola and occasional vocal, Schnyder on saxophone, Doran on electric guitar and Wettstein on synthesizer is a mesmerizing jumble of sounds, some identifiable and some not. Âme Sèche, “dry soul” in English, is the perfect title for the grave and unemotional attitude of the music. The quartet’s primary commitment, it seems, in tracks that mostly last between 2 and 5 minutes, is to the purity of free improvisation with no preconceptions. The results are generally on the quiet side, with an easy-going camaraderie that only sometimes grows ornery. An intriguing session indeed, and ripe for some late-night headphone listening.
Leo CD LR 827; Walter Faehndrich (vla, vcl) Remo Schnyder (sax) Christy Doran (el g) Samuel Wettstein (synth); no recording information; 13 untitled tracks; 53:03. www.leorecords.com