Pascal Gallet

Paris 1790: The music of Monsieur Vidal, the latest album from guitarist Pascal Valois, is dedicated to this guitarist, whose first name, date and place of birth are unknown. Vidal wrote the first guitar concerto in the history of the instrument, and remains the only guitarist to have performed at the prestigious Concert Spirituel des Tuileries, in 1776.

Conceived around a time of strong political, social and cultural turmoil in the UK and elsewhere, a time ridden with a deep sense of uncertainty and unease, the music resonates with feelings of alienation and powerlessness as well as convey ideas of anger and latent violence. Working with heavily textured drones as well as sharp edged sounds and sustained rhythms to echo and articulate those feelings, some of the tracks were re-worked until their final forms had lost all relation with their initial skeleton, something that was partly influenced by the idea of simulacra not representing the real anymore, inspired by the reading of ‘Simulacra and Simulation’ by Jean Baudrillard and ‘The Weird and the Eerie’ by Mark Fisher. The addition of rhythmic structures, a new step for Savy, helped explore the idea of power by saturating the sonic landscape with repetition and pulsations. On certain tracks rhythms are implied, slowly disappearing or simply absent to reflect this idea of the real not being there anymore.

The obvious comparisons are with Nigel North's similar transcriptions for lute, and with all the Hopkinson Smith recordings of Bach (both original and transcribed). I wouldn't want to be without any of those. And there are various transcriptions by John Duarte and others, played on all manner of guitars; I've heard some of those but personally haven't liked them as well as North, Smith, and Monteilhet.

This well-known set of Suites is rarely gone about by most harpsichordists because of its distinctive virtuosity. Its popular title refers to only one manuscript – the one of Johann Christian Bach, who noted “fait pour les Anglois” on it. After all it’s maybe a homage or musical reply on the 1713 publication of François Couperin’s Premier Livre de Pièces de Clavecin.

The Goldberg Variations followed the three parts of Johann Sebastian Bachs Clavier-Übung. The title page presents the work as a Keyboard exercise consisting of an Aria with diverse variations for harpsichord with two manuals… Forkel, in his biography of the composer, relates that these variations were composed at the request of the Count von Keyserlingk so that his harpsichordist, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, might play a few of them during the insomnias that often disturbed the Counts nights.

JEAN-PASCAL BOFFO is a French artist who has been involved in several bands ranging from progressive rock to classic jazz, and recorded a series of solo albums in between his collaborations with various bands and artists.His first stint as a band member was with the progressive rock band MANDRAGORE, which he joined in 1975. Later he joined progressive rock outfit TROLL, and in 1986 Boffo released his first solo album. "Juex De Nains" was issued by French label Musea Records. It was an acoustic album, the only one of his solo releases to date exploring this style and sound.

The two-piano arrangement of orchestral music remained a commercially viable form until the advent of recordings, and even beyond. This recording by the veteran French team of Pascal and Ami Rogé includes several works originally written for two pianos: Ravel's Rhapsodie espagnole and Ma mère l'oye (Mother Goose Suite), the latter better known in its orchestral version, and Saint-Saëns' underrated Scherzo, Op. 87, whose use of whole-tone scales shows that Debussy was not alone in breathing that wind from the east.