Thin Wrist

GUIONNET, JEAN-LUC - L'epaisseur de l'air

"Thin Wrist Recordings release L'épaisseur de l'air (the thickness of air) by Jean-Luc Guionnet. After more than three decades playing the alto saxophone, this is the French artist's first solo saxophone album. Since the 1990s, Guionnet has built a renowned and thrilling oeuvre of works with pipe organs, electronics, and field recordings as both an improvisor and composer; L'épaisseur de l'air finally documents his dedication to exposing sides of the alto saxophone that quite simply never existed until he developed them. His tone is as clear as direct sunlight, so when he boils it in mud or scratches at it as if for air, his emotion is palpable. A double-LP masterpiece and a definitive statement about the profound physical relationship between an improvisor and their instrument. A student of Xenakis at the Sorbonne, Guionnet has constantly explored the philosophical side of music; his work interrogates fundamental questions about skill, intuition, experience, and performance that arise through improvisation. He has instigated and featured in unexpected collaborations such as performances with noted British philosopher Ray Brassier and artists Seijiro Murayama Mattin as well as his long running artistic partnerships with dancer and choreographer Lotus Edde Khouri. For this album, Guionnet retreated to a barn in Brittany, where he recorded by himself at night over the course of a few weeks. Each of the nine improvisations -- spanned across two LPs -- uncovers such particular sonic territory that it's a miracle the whole adds up to such a complete statement. But by pushing space and silence so startlingly and oblongly into the pieces, the gnarled, gritty textures of his tone begins to make sense as a response to time that is forever shifting in such unpredictable ways that you better get into it while it's still coming out. Direct metal mastering at Calyx Mastering Berlin. Pressed at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). Deluxe gatefold double LP with download; Heavy tip-on jacket including debossed and embossed inserts." - Thin Wrist.
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After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.

This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).

Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.

Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.

Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).

So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
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