Eve Risser/White Desert Orchestra - Les Deux Versants Se Regardent

The Guardian 60

(Clean Feed)

Eve Risser is the former pianist with France’s Orchestre National de Jazz whose reputation in Europe is growing both for her adventurous prepared-piano solo performances and bold composing for larger groups. Her 10-piece White Desert Orchestra is currently on a European tour (she plays the London jazz festival solo on 19 November and with the group the next day), and this sometimes spiky but often atmospheric music inspired by Arizona’s Grand Canyon confirms just why the word is out about her. The 20-minute title track opens in abstract crackles and electronic hums but becomes a brass-harmonised vehicle for Norwegian trumpeter Eivind Lønning that has a solemn, Carla Bley-like throb. Splintering improv-guitar sounds precede a wackily wily Django Batesian dance, hoarse Colin Stetson-like sax outbursts bray into wide open spaces, and Psycho-soundtrack noises squeal over rhythms that surge in and out of step. It’s cinematic music with a strong sense of place, even if the climate down there is sometimes pretty bracing.