Delphine Joussein / Rafaelle Rinaudo / Blanche Lafuente

Jacqueline Kerrod17 Days in DecemberOrenda Records 0093

Unless freed from its conventional role as orchestral sweetener invariably used to glide fluffily on top of a chromatic narrative, the multi-string harp is typecast as a brightener. While not negating the harp’s ability to lighten textures, the string-strokers here almost literally turn the instrument on its head to project additional facets. Yet each does so in a wildly divergent fashion.

One third of the French group NOUT, Rafaëlle Rinaudo, who has recorded with the likes Hugues Mayot, bring her electric harp textures to five tracks which wander from Free Jazz to Rock Improv and back again in the company of flutist Delphine Joussein, who has recorded with Sheik Anorak and drummer Blanche Lafuente, who has played with Morgan Carnet. Someone who moves among pop, notated and improvised music and has recorded with Anthony Braxton, South African-born, New York based Jacqueline Kerrod turned Covid 19 isolation to a positive by recording 17 solo improvisations on either acoustic or electric harp.

No poseur like Ian Anderson or other Rock flutists, Joussein cannily uses her instrument as if she was lead singer in a band, with Rinaudo’s high-powered strokes playing Jimmy Page to her Robert Plant and Lafuente slapping ruffs like John Bonham, But just as the drummer’s progressive beats offer more shading and variety than Rock pounders, so flute expansion ranges from delicate vibrations to ferocious attacks propelled through throat gargles and onto fluttering shrieks and crackling sizzles. As for the harpist, she and Joussein sometime combine to produce some faux-baroque filigree before kicking out the jams for harsher interaction. But her string plucks, twangs and smacks, not only move theme variations with pointed flanges or rasping fuzz-tones, but maintain linear motion. This is best experienced on “Les boulettes” and the concluding “Inondation”. With separate measured pops and paradiddles from the drummer, transverse overblowing and arabesques from the flutist plus continuous slurred finger stroking from the harpist, the three finally get together at the half-way mark. Swaying and rocking and on this side of sonic overkill, NOUT’s collective shudders move to a cadenced expansive ending. Although at points Lafuente’s smacks sound as if she’s auditioning for The Ramones, most of “Inondation” centres on back-and-forth between buzzing harp strings that suggest guitar crunches, repeated flute trills and tough vocalization through the metal. Following a drum interlude the triple sound acceleration leads to organ-like power chords and an interlocked finale.

Moving from the night club to the sitting room, Kerrod’s adroit string manipulation sometimes suggest two instruments from the collective string sets. One often provides a basso continuum, while the other roans the scales with glissandi or singular strums and picks. Unlike NOUT’s commitment to front-loaded hardened textures, simple melodies are often heard during the solo harpist’s improvisations. At the same time while allusions to folk guitars exist during acoustic tracks, more rugged timbres arrive with the electric implements. While ascending to higher and higher pitches on “December 16: Glare” for instance, the timbres could come from successively a reed instrument or a steel guitar. On the other hand, “December 20: Sweet Dreams” with concentrated timbres shaking from all parts of the harp, suggests that the exposition is actually being created by a duo of Christmas bells and a harpsichord. Other tracks expose a collection of technical variants from jagged speedy runs that have piano key resonance to metallic drones that wouldn’t be out of place on a Metal session, to watery minimalist plucks and plops. At the same time Kerrod is constantly aware that the concert harp has 47 strings and seven pedal and uses the tandem sets as much as possible.

This is confirmed on 17 Days in December’s longest tracks. The timbres on “December 28: Glassy Fingers” don’t appear glazed but instead oscillate between picking at stretched string tops and reflective string bounces. Sounding two separate melodies the motifs judder with sizzles and sputters only to climax with an expanded and blended tremolo line. Individual shapes from an ostinato throb and individual frails advance in double counterpoint on “December 29: Rust on Bow” until a mid-point pivot finds the drone subsuming the exposition until the very end when and obtuse overlay of singular plucks challenge it.

With these discs Rinaudo and Kerrod join other sound explorers in redefining the sounds and concepts of harp music. Conclusively they prove the instrument is no longer the sole preserve of so-called classical ensembles, cupid or Harpo Marx.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: NOUT: 1. The last train 2. Ça sent le brûlé 3. La mare aux canards 4. Les boulettes 5. Inondation

Personnel: NOUT: Delphine Joussein (flute and fx); Rafaëlle Rinaudo (electric harp) and Blanche Lafuente (drums)

Track Listing: 17: 1. December 1: Trill to Begin 2. December 21: Chatterbox 3. December 7: Gentle Jangle 4. December 9: An Impression 5. December 8: Sugar Up 6. December 16: Glare 7. December 17: Strummed I 8. December 28: Glassy Fingers 9. December 14: Broken: In 3 10.-December 2: Fluttering Alberti 11. December 4: Can-Can 12. December 29: Rust on Bow 13. December 30: Strummed II 14. December 5: Screwed 15. December 13: Sunday 16. December 22: Blips ‘n’ Blops 17. December 20: Sweet Dreams

Personnel: 17: Jacqueline Kerrod (acoustic and electric harp)