Blast - Concert Dessiné

"It's a natural encounter. The electric jazz trio Blast claims the influence of comics, to the point of having taken its name from Manu Larcenet's cult album and regularly paying homage to Pascal Brutal, the unlikely hero of Riad Sattouf. In addition, the many voices enameled his records show his taste for stories, if it was necessary to guide the listener further into instrumental landscapes already evocative. For his part, Benjamin Flao, rising arrow of the hexagonal comics, has also produced many record covers and affirms a musical approach in his creative gesture. Successful multidisciplinary collaboration the drawn concert that brings them together is an example of successful multidisciplinary collaboration, not only - it was the trap - a juxtaposition of two parallel discourses. They are not placed on either side of the screen as usually when musician are in the presence of projected images. Here the group faces it, assuming to turn its back on the public and to leave on this occasion its most built compositions to freely inspire the drawings in construction that it discovers at the same time as us. During the song "Forbidden planet", we say that the performance of Pink Floyd and Soft Machine in London in 1967, accompanied by a psychedelic light show, had to look like that. Flao plays with the colors but also with the textures, moving in rhythm of cosmic nebulae ... unless it is a battle of molecules ... But to mention only this moment of the show would be insufficient and unfairly ignore the exceptional mastery of the draftsman. By an astonishing economy of movements, unfolds before us puzzling and strong scenes, desert landscapes that one imagines post-apocalyptic. Staged unknown animals or anthropomorphic tribes, in stories unraveled in stages, improvised but not devoid of theatrics and humor. In terms of control, Blast is not left out. If the device also seems relatively uncluttered (keyboard, clarinet, drums), the sound palette seems infinite, each pushing its instrument to its limits, as much in the tessitura as in gaming styles and electronic treatments, but still preserving the musicality. Amazing musicians with numerous parallel projects, this one stands out from the others by being the one who moves furthest from jazz to rock and electro, as poetic as it is energetic, both sensitive and exhilarating. And, if so much improvisation retains a bit of these performers to show us here the full extent of their talent for composition, we will not fail to get their records, just to remember that Benjamin Flao and Blast can also be enjoyed separately."

"Inspired from the first hour by the tortured drawings of "Blast", the trio takes the name and the epic of "old carcass" from the illustrator Manu Larcenet. The first opus of the trio gave pride of place to the world of Larcenet, this new album: "Drifting", is for him a creation at the conjuncture between the drawings of Benjamin Flao and the hypnotic music of Blast. On a canvas backdrop of a mysterious intergalactic tale, Flao's drawings are created and animated live with the tortured keyboards of Anne Quillier, the melodies and accents of Pierre Horckmans on the clarinet and the suspenseful effects of Guillaume Bertrand with samples and drums. The universe is drawn in parallel between music and illustrations. The attention is fixed on the images but can not get rid of the music which accompanies them and gives them life as well as the hand of the draftsman. The characters evolve to the rhythm of the music, the images shrink as the brush stroke accelerates. One could speak of a quartet as both musicians and illustrator play the same score with the instruments of their own. The configuration of the group back to the public and the few lights that allow the configuration of the Vauban room forces the audience to "listen to these drawings": just as the notes fade, the drawings are made and discarded as and when as the story is played out. The music is experimental as the brushstroke and we play with sounds as with the material to prove conquered audiences that improvisation is not only a matter of jazz but also drawing."

"The Blast trio invited the Lyon public for a colorful evening.
For the release of his second album Drifting, the Blast trio invited the public of Lyon to Periscope for a colorful evening. In addition to the discovery of this new repertoire, it was the opportunity to unveil the new scenic creation of the trio, which in this case was a quartet.
Between drawing and Blast, it's a long story that has its foundation from the beginning of the group, since it takes its name from the famous comic Manu Larcenet. It's no wonder, then, that in 2017, as part of the Lyon BD Festival, Periscope invites the group and the drawer Benjamin Flao to collaborate for an improvised sketched concert. Alchemy is such that the idea of ​​setting up a project together germinates very quickly. Taken by the Pince-Oreilles collective in coproduction with the Periscope, this creation could not find better case than the release party of Drifting, of which Benjamin Flao signs the cover.
Everything converges on the screen where the drawing is played: the audience, but also the musicians who seem to be imbued with the designer's features and are both actors and spectators. The curves are musical, the music is imaged and Benjamin Flao improvisator, colorist of Blast, from moving vignettes, tells stories that the sounds of the trio influence.
Musically, the new repertoire marks a real rise in the group. The identity of Blast is there, it has matured. Successful and consistent, the subject is clearer and more direct than ever. The sound twists are resolved in melodic and harmonious layers. The musicians enjoy and play with a disconcerting simplicity a music yet never simplistic. On the technical side, do not forget Matthieu Ribun at the controls: he treats the sound of the band in a powerful, full-bodied way, and gives the compositions a hue that stands out from the work of Adrian 'Bourget on Drifting. Two different but complementary approaches.
Many people were won over by the strength and beauty of this concert to watch. Skilfully brought to light by Benjamin Thielland, music nourishes the images that nourish music and this perpetual movement creates a soundboard of sound bubbles, the time of an evening story; of those who print and stay."

"BLAST 'N' FURIOUS
The periscope (rue Delandine - Lyon 2) was full as an egg, October 12, 2018 to welcome the trio Blast came to present his second album entitled Drifting.
The young, mixed and enthusiastic audience was captivated by the hypnotic sounds developed by Anne Quillier's keyboards, Pierre Horckmans' clarinets accompanied by Guillaume Bertrand's drums. This concert was in fact a real audio and visual experience as the illustrator Benjamin Flao captivated the audience with drawings made with markers and brushes and projected live on a screen behind the group.
The illustrations of Benjamin Flao have taken listeners-listeners on a long journey. These have been transported to sometimes disturbing territories, such as a molten volcano, a boat that is thought to be enshrined in an arid Aral Sea, but which transforms itself under the furious brushstrokes of the artist into raging waves. Phantasmagorical characters appear and disappear: silhouettes in movement, animals of desert lands, old indians with cracked skin ...
(...)
Who is doing the concert? The drawing that creates an atmosphere or music that furiously punctures some brushstrokes? The trio is often turned in front of the screen and discovers the forms as and when. The album sounds completely different in live. Where some pieces of the CD were rather hilarious, even throbbing, the live takes a whole other dimension. We ourselves become "drifters", we feel an urgency to move to mark the sustained rhythm of the musical magma that unfolds before us, as an orderly process.
(...)"