Indie-Music.com - Nicole Peyrafitte ~ the bi-continental chowder

Artist: Nicole Peyrafitte

CD: the bi-continental chowder

Home: Albany, New York

Style: avant-garde Jazz

Quote: "The performances are top notch and intriguing to listen to."

By Darryl Gregory

Hungry? Got chowder? Performance artist Nicole Peyrafitte serves up some very interesting sound-scapes and emotional improvisations on her new CD entitled la garbure transcontinentale or the bi-continental chowder. Alternating between French and English poetics, Peyrafitte attempts to help the listener make the connection that she has made through her heuristic research in America and in France. What has her research unearthed, one may ask? Well according to her website and included literature, it is that even though her home town in France and her adopted home in Albany, NY lie on the same latitude the real line of connection resides within her: “Things fall where they lie."

The music that accompanies Peyrafitte’s musings is like a trip through the downtown avant-garde of NYC. Peyrafitte’s musical collaborators George Muscatello and Mitch Elrod really mix things up. The disc starts out with a musique concréte piece and then takes off tripping through prepared guitar, improvisational free jazz, pseudo-blues, funk & wah guitar, and Tibetan singing bowls. At times I felt that I was in a coffee house snapping my fingers and saying –cool man- and at others I felt that I was at The Kitchen in NYC trying to figure out what this performance artists was talking about and trying to be totally open to anything, but thoroughly enjoying the ride.

These pieces are originally meant to accompany a three part live performance by Peyrafitte where at the same time a pot of chowder is cooking off to the side of the stage and is shared with the audience at the end of the performance. So perhaps this would all make better sense to experience it live. The performances are top notch and intriguing to listen to. But, as with most performance art, the message gets lost in the attempt to shove as much sensation through the ears, eyes, and body of the audience member. I would have loved to hear more like the tracks "Things Fall Where They Lie," "Incantation to Inanna," and the small connecting tracks like "NameLine."

the bi-continental chowder is a very tasty and imaginative work. With Peyrafitte’s vocal borrowings from Meredith Monk and Yoko Ono and a band that lends credence to her vocal explorations, this CD is definitely recommended for those listeners in need of an ear stretching.

Buy at CD Baby

Indie-Music Profile

Artist Website: http://www.nicolepeyrafitte.com