The Bridge Sessions - Pang (The Bridge Sessions, 2023)

By Stef Gijssels

The "Bridge Sessions" was created in 2013 as an exchange programme of creative musicians from France and the United States (primarily Chicago) to participate in festivals on the other continent and to perform as newly assembled quartets and quintets of French and American musicians. The project was initiated and led by Alexandre Pierrepont, Johan Saint and Nader Beizaei. The rules of the game are described as follows: "The Bridge associates nearly 150 French and North American musicians (75 per cycle, one cycle lasting seven years), divided into quartets and quintets. This long list respects the sociological diversity of the jazz field: men and women of all generations and backgrounds, who will be brought together, one after another, configuration after configuration. And its aesthetic diversity: music as a means of expression and as a means of experimentation, music as a domain of possibility. All of them show invaluable capacities to share their knowledge and craft, both on- and off-stage."

This is already the sixteenth album of the initiative, with Ben LaMar Gay on cornet, vocals, electronics and percussion, Sam Pluta on live electronics, Sophie Agnel on piano, and Pascal Niggenkemper on double bass.

The four tracks were recorded during concerts in four French cities between May and October 2021, and they show the value of the initiative. The music is beyond category, and also preciously organised by the label. Even if the four tracks were created as separate pieces, they form a relative coherent unity on the album with an interesting sense of development.

The sound is eerie and ethereal. The long first track, fifteen minutes long, consists of shimmering sounds, of the acoustic bass and the inside of the piano, complemented by the electronics of Pluta and LaMar Gay. The latter sings, and gradually a theme emerges, gently supported by the piano, slowly developing into something denser and strange, and it is only after eleven minutes that the cornet appears as the first solo instrument. 

The second track is as mysterious as the first one. The electronics weave a translucent soundscape that seems not to really evolve until Agnel adds a few dramatic piano chords, well-paced, with lots of space in between, ominous and dark. LaMar Gay starts with his typical vocal incantations, alternating between the hypnotic and playful, echoed by his own cornet. 

I will not review every track, because I'm sure you get the gist. The four musicians create an astonishing and excellent album, solid, compelling and utterly strange. 

This album alone justifies the whole initiative of The Bridge: it helps to create brilliant new work by bringing musicians together, almost in an artificial way, so that the bouncing off of new ideas and approaches can lead to something never heard before. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

You will find a performance of the quartet on the video below, starting after the Intermission after about one hour into the video, which starts with a piano duet between Sophie Agnel and Jim Baker.