French Doctors collective

Live report + "HOLLYARIS" (45/Indigo, 2Cd Boxset)

Live Report: Damo Suzuki & French aka Damo Suzuki's Network
Roubaix - La Cave aux Poètes - October 11 2004
http://rien.500ml.org/reviews/damolive.php
There was a bit of a shock when I picked up this little leaflet last week, catching the blink and you'll miss it name in the middle of all these other dates. I was at college and in all honesty, that obviously meant I wasn't quite awake, something that definitely added to my first impression that I had misread the coming of "Damo Suzuki's Network" the next Monday in my crummy little hometown, once an important textile and industrial hot plate, now reduced to a worrying digit on graphs depicting the rates of unemployment. And yet, three days later I had my tickets in hand, and two more and I was waiting inside the Cave aux Poètes. After a rather tragicomic incident including a pathetically posturing opening band and a local television team, we sat patiently as we waited for Damo Suzuki and his french sound carriers to set up. And that's when things started getting weird in a good way. I noticed amongst the band a tallish man with abundant facial pilosity, long curly hair and a poncho .

Obviously, it wasn't long before I started making jokes about how the guy from Reynols had gotten confused and had followed Damo inadvertently under the misimpression that they were his band. That's until I see him plug a strange one-chorded instrument to an effect pedal and rub it frenetically with a bow. And later on place a contact mic inside a plastic bag filled with clothes which he shakes all over the place and throws to the ground and holds to his chest as if it were his suddenly deceased first born. And now there's absolutely no mistake that this is indeed Anla Courtis of Reynols fame who for some reason ended up on the bill. And ladies and gentlemen, I'm slowly realising that after a somewhat restrained beginning, this show is growing into a historical blast of mindblowing performance..

The rest of the group, known for this portion of the tour as French Doctors, is composed of people of different horizons and bands who still interact like they've been playing together for years. The drummer (Edward Perraud: Shub Niggurath) is all over the place, inventive when needed and purely monstruous in the wildest moments..

Two bass guitars are used at times by Olivier Manchion and Nicolas Marmin of Permanent Fatal Error, bringing the necessary groove as they carry the whole crowd with them on ships of low frequencies, while on the other side of the drummer, Franq de Quengo and Sebastien Sorgo manipulate the sounds and weld an electronic ambience..

Right next to the them, Anla is being Anla, having to be reanimated after a particularly high spirited and ecstatic piece. And finally of course, there is Damo.
At the fore of the group, the little big man, like a grey furry ball of quiet energy, at times trading his deliciously defiant voice of a child unwilling to grow old and give up his innocence for - yes - cookie monster growls. He stands there feeding the powerful waves of the music back to the band and the audience. Watching him there, headbanging away, one immediately realizes what Damo Suzuki's Network is. The small man in the middle is the catalyst of the experiment, bringing together these different worlds into a free, rocking form.
I left the venue with the thought that if Damo Suzuki's network is something to be witnessed, no matter who is playing for the occasion, then tonight might even have been a little bit more.

SPIKE MAGAZINE "HollyAris : I Am Damo Suzuki"
http://www.spikemagazine.com/0205damosuzuki.php
"Very soon comes a double CD called "HollyAris"...I mean I'm going to release only doubles in future, except one CD I edited already. It's nice to have more than two hours of pure instant composed music which will never be performed again. 'HollyAris' has two location recorded live. One is in Hollywood another is Paris. As I perform with local sound carriers. CD 1 called Hollywood is performed by sound carriers from Los Angeles and Japanese guitarist Mandog. CD 2 called Paris is performed by sound carriers from France. After they formed a band called FRENCH DOCTORS as they found chemistry between them. And they are recording their first record..." (Damo Suzuki)

XRAYRECORDS - Damo Suzuki Network- "Hollyaris" CD (Funfundveirzig)
http://xrayrecords.ca/article.php?story=20050723163301616&mode=print
"When Damo Suzuki, ex-singer with the now legendary band Can releases a new album, there's one thing you can be sure of, namely that it will be totally different from everything he's released before. He is the one who by his unconditional adherence to improvisation (Damo himself speaks of "Instant Compositions") carries the spirit of Can into the 21st century. Damo pursues his musical vision with a determination few other artists can match. Hollyaris is comprised of excerpts from two performances, each with a totally different lineup. The CD Hollywood was recorded on August 31st 2002 at the Knitting Factory Los Angeles. Damo's voice is very much in the foreground here, which is justified by the fact that his singing is extremely melodic (in fact, the first track is reminiscent of his wonderful vocals on Can's "Future Days" at times). Apart from the voice, it is Len Del Rio's exact percussion which propel the improvisations and Kevin Lee on Moog and Theremin (!) supplying the spacey-spooky sounds who stand out from the rest of the band. Also, it seems that the location of each performance had an influence on what has been captured on tape: On Hollywood, one can discern the occasional elements of westcoast psychedelia, which is mainly due to the three guitars playing.
But it's the Paris CD which is the real surprise of this set. It was recorded only some 14 months later, yet it sounds like a decade has elapsed since the LA-gig. Whereas the latter band played psych- and avantgarderock with the occasional nod in the direction of Can, the music on Paris is much more subtle. With the sole exception of the drummer, all of Damo's five collaborators use electronic processing tools. Thus Damo's singing is presented here in a totally new setting for him. The fact that Damo can adapt his singing so effortlessly to this modern context speaks volumes for his artistic vision and his will to communicate with his fellow musicians (which has always been his ultimate concern). More than any other of Damo's releases, Paris focusses on the search for a collective expression, the communication and understanding across genres and generations. Damo once said that when he goes onstage, he is not so much thinking about the music which he will play but about creating a collective experience with his audience within the moment. The music on Hollyaris bear witness to that attitude."

INDIGO (Distributor) Press release
http://www.indigo.de/unser_programm/titel/85619/
Wenn Damo Suzuki, Ex-Sänger der legendären Band Can, ein neues Album herausbringt, dann ist auf eins Verlass: Es klingt anders als man denkt. Denn Suzuki trägt durch seine bedingungslosen Improvisationen (er selbst spricht von "Instant Compositions") den Geist von Can entschlossen ins 21. Jahrhundert. Die Doppel-CD "Hollyaris" beinhaltet Ausschnitte aus zwei Auftritten, die mit vollkommen unterschiedlichen Bands eingespielt wurden. Die CD "Hollywood" wurde am 31. August 2002 in der Knitting Factory in Los Angeles aufgenommen. Damos Stimme steht hier weit im Vordergrund, während die sechs Musiker einen sehr differenzierten Sound produzieren, aus dem Moog und das spacig-unheimliche Theremin (Ätherwellengeige) herausstechen. Bei der Paris-Aufnahme ein Jahr später geht es subtiler und elektronischer zu. Die fünf Mitmusiker ("Les French Doctors") bedienen sich mit Ausnahme des Drummers allesamt elektronischer Verfremdungsmittel. Die Tatsache, dass sich Damo Suzuki so nahtlos in diesen modernen Kontext einfügt, spricht für seine künstlerische Vision und seinen Willen zur Kommunikation mit den Musikern.