louis laurain | pulses, pipes, patterns @ nowe idzie od morza (pl)

I met Luis Laurain when he played with the band Lumpeks in St. John’s Church in Gdańsk. He made excellent use of the acoustics of the space in the back nave of the church, which made quite an impression on me. Back then he moved in the idiom of jazz music, but on Pulses, Pipes, Patterns his trumpet stands as far as possible from what the conventional sound of this instrument can be associated with. Laurain prepares the instrument, focuses on details (“Franzform”), sometimes samples it, looping it into the title patterns (“Rhypnotic”), he explores the resonance of the trumpet’s afterimages (“Satellites for Nawel”), or turns it into percussion (“90′”). Some of the sounds are played live, some are pre-created, they are amplified, mixed with the sounds of air, rattling jams and metallic reverberations. At times Laurain reminds me of another trumpeter, Mazen Kerbaj, who also vivisects his instrument. While Kerbaj focuses on acoustic explorations, Laurain takes the possibilities of his trumpet as the starting point and develops them by means of electrification, stretching the sound and looping ornaments. The result is an album that shines with many colours, showing the trumpet from a completely different perspective.