Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Convulsif Big Band

When I made a list of 2016 releases you shouldn't miss, Convulsif made their first appearance here on the blog. 6 years later and I still love these guys. You can find most of their discography on their bandcamp page, all their recordings as a quartet.

What's not there is their first incarnation, the Big Band, and it's pretty hard to find online as well. So here I am.. I think they formed around 2009, by Loïc Grobéty. They had some kind of ever changing line-up concept at that time, which was abandoned as they fixed on the current quartet.


2011 - 1

- Guido Wyss / drum
- Sébastien Aegerter / vibraphone
- Gregor Vidic / baritone sax
- Marc Jufer / sax tenor
- Loïc Grobéty / bass
- Stéphane Loup / guitars
[not part of this recording but also around that time, - Benjamin Pluss / vocals]

My PC file says it's from 2013, but intertnet says 2011, internet wins.
I think it's a live recording of a show, one longass track.
Know that this is pretty different from the quartet, much less brutal and heavy, a lot more atmospheric jazz. But still retain some metallic ideas that would appear later on.
Goes through different segments, some slow and smooth, some free jazz crazylike.


2013 - 2

- Martin Perret / drums
- Matthieu Amstutz / drums
- Christian Müller / clarinet + electronics
- Loïc Grobéty / bass + electronics + K7
- Gregor Vidic / baritone saxophone
- Marc Jufer / saxophone tenor + soprano
- Stéphane Loup / guitar + electronics

Double CD.
The first is almost the same length as on the first album, and starts with the same segment, but continues different, so I guess it's another live recording from the same era, same vibes and atmosphere. The second one is mostly pure drone noise for you abstract lovers.