Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday May 29th, 2013 with Bernard Stepien
MMM quartet (Léandre, Frith, Curran, Leimgruber)

There are two kinds of music in this world: the more or less predictable music that is based on well-known forms such as harmonic or rhythmic patterns and there is improvised music that is mostly unpredictable. Both are of course equally enjoyable. Some improvised music concert organizers usually like to stretch it a little bit further by pitching a number of musicians that have not been playing regularly together for a specific occasion. This is more or less the case of the MMM quartet composed of outstanding musicians, all from different countries to ensure that they didn`t play that often together, namely French bassist Joëlle Léandre, American pianist Alvin Curran, British guitarist Fred Frith and Swiss saxophonist Urs Leimgruber. The result is more or less following the patterns of a fractal that unmistakably creates an atmosphere where the listener feels like floating in mid-air. Younger audiences call this “chill”. Relaxing avant-garde music? This is particularly most surprising since, taken individualy, the musicians composing this quartet are more known to be exuberant, dumping tons of notes and sounds on their fans. Tonight, we will sample their Live at the Metz’ Arsenal CD.