The Squid's Ear Magazine


MouthWind (Van Schouwburg / Casserley): Corps Et Biens - Hommage à Robert Desnos (Creative Sources)

A surreal and visceral homage to French poet Robert Desnos, this collaboration between Belgian vocal improviser Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg and British electroacoustic pioneer Lawrence Casserley transforms the human voice through expressive physicality and real-time electronic processing — fifteen vivid episodes unfolding as a dreamlike, humorous, and haunting exploration of language, body, and sound.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg-voice

Lawrence Casserley-signal processing instrument


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UPC: 5609063408539

Label: Creative Sources
Catalog ID: cs853
Squidco Product Code: 35769

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Lawrence's studio in Oxford, UK on November 24th and 25th, 2023, by

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

D'une voix noire
D'une voix maigre
M'a séduite
dans la nuit mince
dans le jour des temps.
Se vêtir d'une crêpe de chevelure
la muse aux seins mourants.

Et la voix ronde
dit que la voie est esclave.

Quelle lumière cuite ce jour-là

(With a dark voice
With a thin voice
Seduced me
in the thin night
in the day of time.
Dressing herself in a crepe of hair
the muse with dying breasts.

And the round voice
says that the way is enslaved.

What a baked light that day)



"Corps et Biens is a special album. During his long and legendary artistic life, the British Lawrence Casserley performed the sounds of live processing of many instruments and formations, but he very rarely did it with only a human voice on the desk. The latter is provided here by the Belgian vocalist and voice artist Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, who can also claim to be a legend of the genre, at least in the continental dimension. The album is divided into fifteen episodes, formed into seven chapters, and is inspired by the poetry of Robert Desnos. This recording is definitely worth listening to!The Belgian's range of vocal abilities seems to be as wide as his creativity. And perhaps the most important thing, what places the artist beyond the standard of voice improvisers, is his incredible sense of humor, self-distance, and artistic frivolity. The musician produces sounds with his whole body, of which the throat and vocal cords are merely a spectacular culmination. He talks to us, laughs, parodies, clucks like Donald Duck, whinnies, neighs, and can imitate any animal. He lisps, purrs, sings while shaving, builds ambient vocalizations, intensely smells the scents of nature and buzzes like a bee. Casserley thrives in this madness and seems to be a musician born for the electronic deconstruction of the voice. We know very well that the Briton also spins his own separate stories - delicate, fleeting, as dreamlike as they are mysterious. There is still the literary layer of this delicious album, the exploration of which I leave to more advanced listeners who have time."-Andrzej Nowak, Spontaneous Music Tribune



Robert Desnos (1900-1945) was a French poet, surrealist, journalist, and member of the French Resistance during World War II. He's best known for his vivid and dreamlike poetry, his involvement in the early Surrealist movement, and his tragic death in a Nazi concentration camp.

Here are some highlights of his life and work:

Surrealism: Desnos was a key figure in the Surrealist movement in the 1920s, closely associated with André Breton. He was especially gifted in automatic writing-a core Surrealist technique-and was considered by Breton to be one of the most talented practitioners of unconscious expression.

Literary Style: His poetry often blurs the lines between waking and dreaming, filled with fantastical imagery, eroticism, and a love for wordplay. His early works include Rrose Sélavy and La Liberté ou l'amour!.

Resistance Work: During WWII, Desnos worked with the French Resistance and used his skills as a journalist and radio broadcaster to fight against the Nazi regime. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 and deported to several concentration camps, ultimately dying of typhus in Terezín (Theresienstadt) in 1945, just weeks after the camp was liberated.

Legacy: Despite his relatively early death, Desnos remains one of France's most beloved poets. His work is known for its passionate defense of freedom and the imagination. His poem "The Voice of Robert Desnos" is often cited for its haunting beauty and prophetic tone.


Get additional information at Spontaneous Music Tribune

Artist Biographies

"Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg ( JM VS ). Voice, performance, improvised music. Brussels. Born 1955. Member of Brussels' Inaudible Collective & Workshops since 1984. Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg develops vocal improvisation and voice extended techniques from low throat singing to high falsetto, overtones and yodels, mouth noises etc.. . " Phonoetry " (phonésie in french) describes the poésie sonore of his solo voice performance " ORYNX " (Orynx -Phonésie cd Inaudible 003.)

Solos in London, Lille, Slovakia, Liège and Brussels. Interested in telepathic interplay and adapting his sounds with different partners/ groupings. Worked with pianist Guy Strale and percussion poet and graphic artist Kris Vanderstraeten,first as a guitar player(...). Became vocalist gradually since the early 90's. Gingko 4 -JMVS, Guy Strale, flutist Adelheid Sieuw and guitarist Jan-Huib Nas- performed some years. (Freedom of The City 2006 cd Emanem 4139). Duos: guitarist John Russell, percussionnist Javier Carmona, singer Mara Pigeon, G. Strale, A. Sieuw and guitarist Pascal Marzan. The Mercelis Concert: John Russell / JM VS / Jean Demey (dblebass) cd Inaudible 006. SUREAU : Kris Vanderstraeten / Jean Demey / Van Schouwburg (Creative Sources CS112). Garden Gift: Adelheid Sieuw / John Russell / Jean Demey / JM VS Hurta Cordel 08 Madrid Performed with Jacques Foschia, Mike Goyvaerts, Lawrence Casserley, Paul Hubweber, Gianni Mimmo, David Leahy, Phil Minton and Ute Wassermann, Marco Loprieno, Jacques Fauville, Jean Coulon, José Bedeur, Michaël Delia,Timo Van Luyck, Hugh Metcalfe....

Festivals: Freedom of the City London, Sons Libérés Brussels, Hermes Ear Nitra, La Malterie Lille, Bevrijdt de Muziek Antwerpen, Hard Gaan Hasselt, Hurta Cordel 2008 Madrid with Garden Gift, R de Choc 08 Paris. Benjamin Péret's Poems Performance with Jacques Foschia's radios. Workestra of Inaudible.Since 1999, Inaudible has organized continuously workshops & concerts with Belgian and Foreign improvisers in Brussels. Inaudible members : Strale / JM VS / Nas / Sieuw / Loprieno / Legros / Demey etc... JMVS writes on the subject of improvised musics and his "Spontaneous Music Ensemble and John Stevens' Story" (1965-1994) was published in french magazine Improjazz.

Current groups are : Sureau with Kris Vanderstraeten percussion and Jean Demey double bass. Duos with Marjolaine Charbin piano and Audrey Lauro, sax alto. Garden Gift with Jean Demey, John Russell, guitar, Adelheid Sieuw, flutes & J-MVS. MouthWind with Lawrence Casserley and players Hubweber, Charbin, Sieuw and Foschia.

Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg belongs to the band : Adam Bohman / Zsolt Sörès/ Oli Mayne/ J-M Van Schouwburg. Works with composer and electro-acoustic musician Dario Palermo. Projects and performances with Adelheid Sieuw, John Russell, Lawrence Casserley, Jacques Foschia, Gianni Mimmo, Angelo Contini, Paul Dunmall, Paul Hubweber and some others. Performed also with Mike Goyvaerts, Mara Pigeon, David Leahy, Javier Carmona, Phil Minton, Ute Wassermann, Pascal Marzan, Dan Warburton, Pat Wichers, Gianni Mimmo, Enzo Rocco, Stefano Giust, Mick Beck, John Jasnoch, Hugh Metcalfe, Heddy Boubeker, .... Extracts of Orynx were selected in Peter Strickland's Katalin Varga soundtrack. Will play his singer's role in the movie Berberian Sound Studio of director Strickland."

-M-Etropolis (https://m-etropolis.com/blog/list/artists/t-u-v/van-schouwburg-jean-michel/)
4/28/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Lawrence Casserley (born UK, 1941) has devoted his professional career, as composer, conductor and performer, to real time electroacoustic music. In 1967 he became one of the first students of Electronic Music at the Royal College of Music, London, UK, on the new course taught by Tristram Cary. Later he became Professor-in-Charge of Studios and Adviser for Electroacoustic Music at the RCM, before taking early retirement in 1995.

He is best known for his work in free improvised music, particularly real-time processing of other musicians' sound, and he has devised a special computer processing instrument for this work (picture above). He has worked with many of the finest improvisers, particularly Evan Parker, with whom he works frequently as a duo partner, in various larger groupings and in the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. He also works as a soloist, processing sounds from voice, percussion and home-made instruments. CDs have been released by ECM, Konnex, Leo Records, Psi, Sargasso and Touch.

Much of Casserley's work has involved collaboration with other art forms, including poets, eg Bob Cobbing, and visual artists, including Colourscape artist Peter Jones. He is a Director of the Colourscape Music Festivals, presenting contemporary music in the unique environment of the Colourscape walk-in sculpture. He also collaborates with Peter Jones on sound/light installations.

Casserley's "instrumental" approach to live computer sound processing is the hallmark of his work; the Signal Processing Instrument allows him to use physical gestures to control the processing and to direct the morphology of the sounds. This is the culmination of forty years of experience in the performance of live electronic work; his earliest live electronic pieces were performed in 1969, and he has performed many of the live electronic "classics" of the 20th century; he has also collaborated with other composers to realise their electronic performance ideas. He is noted for the breadth and variety of his collaborations, which cross styles and generations."

-Lawrence Casserley Website (http://www.lcasserley.co.uk/biography.shtml)
4/28/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Et des carillons et des cascades 04:58

2. Je la boucle en serrant ma pipe entre les touches 01:22

3. Enfin, la nuit tomba a genoux 05:22

4. Orgie du metal et des cloques de crapaud 03:18

5. ui c'est le desert que je bois dans mon verre 01:46

6. Une parabole s'ennuyait dans sa cage 03:49

7. Que ma voix vous parvienne donc 04:38

8. Sycomore Effrene 07:54

9. Et qu'il mene un tel bruit dans la cervelle que les oreilles en sifflent 00:13

10. Ou fut engendre l'arriere-grand-pere 04:04

11. La marquise de saperlipopette chante a ravir 02:00

12. Lerire des furieuses t'ouvre la bouche en vain 01:33

13. Convertir la haine en espoir 05:47

14. Le carre a quatre cotes 07:30

15. Dans la nuit, il y a naturellement les sept merveilles du monde 01:09

Related Categories of Interest:


Creative Sources
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Unusual Vocal Forms
Duo Recordings
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
New in Improvised Music
Recent Releases and Best Sellers

Search for other titles on the label:
Creative Sources.


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