The combination of guitar and drums seems self-evident – they basically represent the core of rock & roll and popular music in the second half of the 20th century – yet it is rather uncommon in improvised music, where they are usually tied in with other instruments. Of course there are exceptions.
For this encounter with drummer Tom Malmendier – an improvising member of L’Oeil Kollectif, a loose constellation of artists based in Liège, in the French-speaking part of Belgium – Serries still has some predecessors. Vanguard has some powerful, abrasive moments, or at least instances where the threat of explosive violence becomes palpable, yet it is different from most of the music on other guitar/drums albums, which often prefer combustible action. The title of the first piece provided a hint of its actual course, as the spirit of Derek Bailey is somewhat closer to Serries’ more recent endeavours. Perhaps you will even think of his legendary duo sessions with Han Bennink, like the eponymous album they recorded for the ICP-label in 1969, which was probably among the first examples of a guitar/drums duo in free improvisation.
Here the dynamics are quite different and the strategies less disruptive, but the connection is still there, in the amplified and completely acoustic parts, the unconventional role of the percussion, the exceptional attention to detail and the restless manipulation of sounds. Starting from “Incus”, this brief album feels like a ride through a maze of possibilities, with the closeness of the studio sound adding to the recording’s cohesion and intimacy. Malmendier scrapes, rattles and scratches, providing a colorful, tumbling answer to Serries’ irregular strumming, jarring convulsions and brief machine gun salvos. It is interaction reveling in its freedom to look for, and find, a common ground.
Elsewhere, the two explore their improvising kinship in related but refreshingly diverse ways. In “Twelve Tone”, Serries’ spidery slashings are encircled by Malmendier’s patient drum rolls, eventually creating a kind of gallop with his thudding bass drum. The pieces at the heart of the album – the title track and “Coded Ideal” – delve deeper into abstraction, with fidgety deconstructions and manipulations, the guitar giving up its regular identity and morphing into an unidentifiable sound generator. Quite different from “Adrift”, where the metallic rustle and sliding and gliding over the strings stress their origins. “Stock”, finally, returns to the jagged edges of the album opener, hinting at an animalistic physicality.
As Derek Bailey once argued, the term ‘improvisation’ is loaded with such widespread connotations (the music is unprepared, flippant, without depth) that you’d almost hesitate to use it. However, no better alternative has become available and moreover: one close listen to Vanguard lets you know that you are dealing with skilled and inspired improvisers adding a worthwhile chapter to a 50-plus years legacy.
Guy Peters 2019
