L'envers dimension by Roland Devocelle+Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

Roland Devocelle saxophones
Jukka-Pekka Kervinen prepared electric guitar, trumpet, mandolin, electronics


We all know that silence is the opposite of sound.
But what really happens when sound is present?
Does silence remain in the background like a watermark?
Does something else emerge from behind the sounds when they mingle?
Is there an imperceptible dimension which is neither silence nor noise?

Jukka and Roland have attempted to make the inexpressible heard: these sounds hidden behind sounds, which emerge like unsuspected nuances when colours are mixed.

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Roland contacted me and suggested a remote collaboration: He had previously heard my improvisations (and I had heard his). He proposed that I send him some recordings and I prepared a few, six or seven in total, which I sent in batches. Roland played with/over my improvisations and I loved the results. For some tracks he made more than one version and he gave me free rein to pick which I liked best. I generated some French text fragments for Roland as titles and we finished the album.
Remote recording and collaboration, in my opinion, has some similarities with playing together in real life - the element of surprise, how the other reacts, the same kind of spontaneous elements - the only difference is time - it is not seconds or fraction of seconds, instead it is hours, days, sometimes weeks. The waiting, for what the other participant sends or how he/she reacts to my recording batches, is the main difference.
I must (and want to) work and process the remote collaboration in a different way than I would do live, playing together at same time in the same space. Always excited to await what happens: Surprise element(s) with a time lag.
[Jukka-Pekka Kervinen]
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Working with Jukka’s music has been both a real challenge and a meaningful artistic encounter. His world, both rich and unique, pushed me to explore a voice of my own, specific to this collaboration—a voice that now influences my playing.
The first person I experimented with using this method is Urbuli Baba, a French percussionist, who I still collaborate with today. Familiar with this type of process, he was the one who inspired me to initiate long-distance collaborations.
My way of working follows a fairly simple procedure: when I receive Jukka's recordings, I try to get as close as possible to the conditions of a live improvisation - I start playing without having listened to the track beforehand, launching into a single take as if I were performing in a concert setting.
I record several takes, each with a different approach, and select the ones I find most interesting. I make a point of preserving the entirety and integrity of each selected take; there are no cuts or additions. Finally, I mix the elements to create a coherent sonic whole.
[Roland Devocelle]

since 1994

pay what you can afford

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