"Catherine has sung for more name acts on the avant-garde and improvising circuit than anyone can shake a stick at. Her voice encompasses a wide and varying degree of emotions, and is equally at home elucidating both meaningful texts and blathering, non-sensical scats. On this disc, her voice becomes a vehicle for melodic interpretation: everything from ethnic African approximations to full-blown, creepy avant-screams to Balkanesque chants is examined."
There you have it in a nutshell. I'd classify this disc in the conceptual art category. Jauniaux narrates tales and fables, many self-penned, over various soundtracks. Most numbers seem steeply entrenched in a traditional folk genre, which Ms Jauniaux pulls off admirably. Her clear voice can really sail at times and is always pleasant to the ear, regardless of the genre she is exploring (and some of the material can get downright creepy).
Her main co-conspirator on this disc is Tim Hodgkinson, another veteran of the avant-garde circuit (he's played with Henry Cow, The Work, God, K-Space).Fluvial can be perceived as being way off the beaten path but I guess what makes it work is the fact that Jauniaux is a very capable, multi-lingual vocalist who seems to lose herself entirely in the music.
If tribal chanting accompanied by minimalistic percussions is your thing, you probably already own this on vinyl (it was originally released in 1983). Other than that, I'm not really sure to whom I'd recommend this disc to other than very open-minded artsy types, or those who never back down from extremely challenging soundscapes. This disc is unique to say the least!
Track Listing:
- Dream (1:42)
- Une escadrille de sorcieres (5:13)
- Sweet Smell (1:54)
- Dorese trei babys (3:24)
- Copul's humus (3:24)
- Kebadaya (5:10)
- Origine des femmes (4:26)
- Tilimbom (4:55)
- Chanson de la fraternization (3:14)
- A Divine Image (5:54)
- Infant Sorrow (2:47)
- The Dancers Under The Hill (3:07)
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