:take: s/t
Three:four Records

First things first: :take is the alias adopted by Paris-based guitarist Jérôme Boutinot; Take, on the other hand, is LA-based DJ and producer T. Wilson who has issued instrumental hip-hop on labels such as Inner Current and Eat Concrete. Boutinot inaugurated Three:four's split ten-inch vinyl series last year with White/Lichens and now receives the solo treatment with an EP release. Boutinot draws the listener into the release slowly using meditative understatement before expanding the material's range as the EP progresses, and though guitar is the only instrument used, the four tracks never feel one-dimensional or in need of supplmental instrumentation.

“Touche” blossoms slowly, with blurry tendrils first appearing and then bright melodic trails of single-note patterns following soon after. Layers gradually accumulate until a hypnotic mass of loops forms. The sense of mystic calm carries over into “L'endroit du crâne paisible” where harmonic shudders likewise progressively collect into chiming figures that see-saw dazedly. The EP's second track is also the longest, which enables Boutinot to explore the material more intensively until it becomes a torrential field of interlaced melodies. Moving away from the soothing, ambient character of such material is the brief “Guerre silence,” where the guitar becomes as much a percussive as melodic instrument, while “Nom de plume” gathers together many of the preceding tracks' contrasting tendencies by uniting obsessive flurries and clearly etched chordal patterns. Fans of experimental guitar work should hear much to like in the CD's four tracks.

October 2010