Der in London lebende Instrumentalist und Komponist Pascal Bideau a.k.a. Akusmi bringt Ende des Monats einen neuen Longplayer unter dem Titel “Fleeting Future” heraus. Mit verspielter Leichtigkeit entfaltet sich über die acht Tracks, die alle ihren eigenen Charakter haben, eine reizvolle Mixtur aus Minimal Music, Jazz und Komponenten, die gemeinhin unter Weltmusik rangieren. Eine leichtfüßige Perkussion, die hinter den hypnotisierenden Bläsern oft kaum bewusst hörbar ist, fungiert in vielen Stücken als geheime Antriebskraft. Bideau entwickelte schon vor einiger Zeit ein starkes Interesse an indonesischer Gamelan-Musik, die manchmal als Strukturelement, manchmal deutlich im Rahmen des Gongeinsatzes präsent ist. Das Album erscheint in einer limitierten transparenten Vinyl-Edition sowie digital beim jungen Tonal Union-Label. Artworkund Design stammen von Sigrid Calon und Adam Heron.

“With its hallucinatory, genre-defying blend of minimalism, cosmic jazz and Fourth World influences, and in its quest for optimism in the face of unknown and limitless possibility. Fleeting Future stands apart as an inventive and inspirational debut. The creation of the album’s richly colourful and multi-layered sound world was originally inspired by Bideau’s journey to Indonesia, where he immersed himself in traditional Gamelan and gong music. Many of the themes, motifs and melodies on Fleeting Future seed from the ‘Slendro’ scale, one of the essential tuning systems used in Gamelan. However it is not musical scales, but scales as in the size or extent of things that most fascinates Bideau, specifically he explains; “the compelling way things dramatically change when you shift from any given scale to another.” The album connects directly to nature and the wider world in its evocation of perceptive shifts and transitions from microscopic to macro scale, as evidenced by the opening title track ‘Fleeting Future’, on which

a simple dotted saxophone line morphs and billows into synths, brass and strings, indicating the musical voyage that lies ahead. Like the start of a journey or adventure it is full of anticipation, its arborescent growth conveying the optimism of the unknown and of limitless possibility. The album centrepiece ‘Neo Tokyo’ is a vibrating, ebullient mass of colliding elements which feels like zooming in to the electron level, as it teeters on the edge of chaos. The title is a reference to Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, a dizzying work of art set in a sprawling futuristic metropolis. [...] Fleeting Future was composed and recorded by Bideau between 2017 and 2019 in his North London studio and features additional contributions recorded in Berlin by Florian Juncker (trombone), Ruth Velten (saxophone) and regular collaborator Daniel Brandt of Brandt Brauer Frick (drums / electronic percussions).” (Tonal Union)

Porträt © Alex Kozobolis