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about “Running Away” (again)December 12, 2009 Guillaume Viltard’s solo release Running Away seems a fitting release to be writing about right now. It is a CD that perhaps a couple of years back I would never have given a chance, let alone found myself enjoying over a good number of listens. Why? well its a solo acoustic double bass album that, in some places is busy and talkative. Although there is plenty of invention and diversity in the playing here, I wouldn’t have given it a second chance. We all grow older and wiser sometime I guess. Viltard was born in the So how does it sound? Is it busy, gabby, talkative etc…? does it sound like it could have been released just as easily in 1985? The answer is both yes and no to all of these questions. Do any of them really matter though? No, probably not. There are eight tracks on Running Away, and each has its own character. Six of the pieces are named Local 1-6, and the last two, named Bouconne 1 and 2 were recorded outside in a forest at Local 5 might be my favourite of the indoor (studio?) recordings. It has a distant, wistful feel to it as it begins, relaxing the listener, putting an arm around you before slowly complicating things, adding intricate detail and fraught, constant, almost overpoweringly urgent bowed sounds. Digging your ears deep into this piece, closely following the music through its endless twists and turns is a troubling, difficult experience, but a powerful one all the same.Confusingly, the last of the Local pieces, number six, begins, and runs for just a hanful of seconds before the CD player clicks over to the next track, the first of the forest recordings, but with the timer counting down from minus seven and a bit minutes. Certainly, on this beautiful little track birdsong can be heard in the background, but it isn’t completely clear if the recording actually takes place in the forest, or if a recording made there is layered behind the studio capture. As the forest sounds start to take hold in this piece, so Viltard’s playing becomes quieter, and much less busy, as if responding directly tot the gentle calm of these surroundings, or at the very least a recording of them. The downloadable tracks all seem to last different lengths to the ones on the CD as well (Its a “proper” CD not a CDr as well, so this isn’t a case of a bad burn) but again this doesn’t matter. This music probably doesn’t need any great analysis, its beauty comes through the powerful interaction between human and instrument, following a great tradition, but losing none of its power through this. The Bouconne forest tracks (track?) are just lovely, the way the bass seems to duet with the streams of twittering high pitched birds and occasional cuckoo bellows is a real joy.Running Away is great, gripping, exciting stuff that I can listen to over and over again. It certainly isn’t all blood and thunder stuff, the music is varied throughout, but always deeply sensual. Its also the second straight-up solo double bass album I have spent a lot of time with this year after John Edwards’ excellent Volume. I must be getting old |