BIRGÉ - HOCHAPFEL - VROD
Ball of Fire
GRRR 3100 online, 2019

*

Improvisations recorded on November 22 2019
at GRRR Studio by Jean-Jacques Birgé
in the order which they have been played

Cover © JJB
Photo of the trio © Peter Gabor

Article on French Blog

73 minutes

As for albums Game Bling with Ève Risser and Joce Mienniel (2014), Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard with Médéric Collignon and Julien Desprez (2014), Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard 2 with Pascal Contet and Antonin-Tri Hoang (2015), Questions with Élise Dabrowski and Mathias Lévy (May 2019), WD-40 avec Christelle Séry and Jonathan Pontier (Oct. 2019), and the live show filmed À l'improviste with Birgitte Lyregaard and Linda Edsjö (2014), cards from the game Oblique Strategies by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt were randomly chosen as scores for the musicians.


Films of some concerts, where the audience choses the cards, are also online on YouTube (with Collignon, Desprez, Contet, Hoang, Lyregaard, Edsjö)...
Ball of Fire has been partly filmed by Peter Gabor to be used in a project on Jean-Jacques Birgé.


The Lyra-8 and The Pipe are SOMA Russian synthesizers, the JJB64 is a virtual un prototype invented by Eric Vernhes for Jean-Jacques Birgé's 64th birthday. Early in the mroning Karsten broke the high E on Jean-Jacques's guitar and other strings on his zheng, a Chinese koto. The cosmicbow buit by Christopher Vila Monasterio is one with four strings.


The title of the album is a dedication to Barbara Stanwyck in Howard Hawks' film. The ball comes from a building in Vienna designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

tracklist / infos / donwloads
n°1 / What are you really thinking about just now? Incorporate / 6'04

Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboard
Jean-François Vrod - violin
Karsten Hochapfel - cello

n°2 / Gardening, not architecture / 1'43

Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboards, field recording
Jean-François Vrod - violin
Karsten Hochapfel - cello

n°3 / Take a break / 3'17

Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboard, percussion, groowah
Jean-François Vrod - violin, kazoo
Karsten Hochapfel - 5 string guitar

n°4 / Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them / 3'17

Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboard
Jean-François Vrod - vocals, violin
Karsten Hochapfel - cello

n°5 / Be dirty / 3'30

Jean-Jacques Birgé - Lyra-8
Jean-François Vrod - violin
Karsten Hochapfel - cello

n°6 / Once the search is in progress, something will be found / 3'08

Jean-Jacques Birgé - JJB64
Jean-François Vrod - violin
Karsten Hochapfel - cello

n°7 / Do something boring / 3'52

Jean-Jacques Birgé - radio, H3000
Jean-François Vrod - violin
Karsten Hochapfel - cello

n°8 / Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list / 4'22

Jean-Jacques Birgé - The Pipe
Jean-François Vrod - violin
Karsten Hochapfel - cosmicbow, blows

n°9 / Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a stricture) / 6'39

Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboard
Jean-François Vrod - violin, birdcall
Karsten Hochapfel - zheng

n°10 / Use filters / 6'59

Jean-Jacques Birgé - reed trumpet, Lyra-8
Jean-François Vrod - violin, harmonica
Karsten Hochapfel - cello

n°11 / Turn it upside down / 5'20

Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboard, vocals, jaw harp, H3000
Jean-François Vrod - vocals, percussion
Karsten Hochapfel - cello

n°12 / Not building a wall but making a brick / 3'41

Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboard, tubomaracas
Jean-François Vrod - violin
Karsten Hochapfel - cello

n°13 / In total darkness or in a very large room, very quietly / 8'48

Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboards, flute, bullroarer
Jean-François Vrod - violin
Karsten Hochapfel - cello

n°14 / Where’s the edge? Where does the frame start? / 5'16

Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboard
Jean-François Vrod - vocals
Karsten Hochapfel - cello

n°15 / Simple substraction / 4'59

Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboards
Jean-François Vrod - violin
Karsten Hochapfel - cello

n°16 / You don’t have to be ashamed of using your own ideas / 2'05

Jean-Jacques Birgé - keyboards
Jean-François Vrod - violin, vocals
Karsten Hochapfel - cello


Photo © Peter Gabor

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