Monchocé Studer, DUO
Sylvain Monchocé gayageum
Daniel Studer b
All works by Sylvain Monchocé and Daniel Studer
Recorded February 1 and 2, 2024 in Basel by Christian Moser.
Mixed and masted by Alex Huber.
Produced by Sylvain Monchocé and Daniel Studer.
Cover Art by Markus Dorninger and Stefan Schönegg.
℗ + © 2024
label: Impakt Records, impakt 037, 2024
music:
Second Dialog, 2024, 3:23
Third Dialog, 2024, 5:06
Fourth Dialog, 2024, 10:13
Fifth Dialog, 2024, 8:39
order: bandcamp
cd reviews:
Sylvain Monchocé ist nicht nur Multiinstrumentalist. Als
solcher studierter Flötist, der sich auf die Interpretation zeitgenössischer
Komposition spezialisiert hat. Er spielt auch Saxofon und neben Gayageum auch
Daegum, zwei koreanische Instrumente also. Zudem ist er studierter Physiker (wie
übrigens auch Posaunist Giancarlo Schiaffini; siehe oben). Seit 2021 improvisieren
die beiden gemeinsam und erforschen den weiten Möglichkeitsraum ihrer
Instrumente in Interaktion. Präzision und Kraft, ob in blitzartigen Klangfolgen
oder gezielt gesetzten Aktionen. Pausen sind Klang, Pausen sind Spannung,
Pausen sind Zwischenräume, in denen die Musik stattfindet. Auch wenn sie kurz
sind. Hier wird genau gehört und dann gespielt. Auch wenn hören und spielen
zuweilen in eins zu fallen scheinen. Das alles sind Qualitäten, die koreanische
Musik ebenso ausmachen wie europäische, nur in unterschiedlicher Art und
Weise. Hier treffen sie transformiert in der Improvisation aufeinander.
Nina Polaschegg, freiStil, 2025
…Präzision und Kraft, ob in blitzartigen Klangfolgen oder gezielt gesetzten Aktionen. Pausen sind Klang, Pausen sind Spannung, Pausen sind Zwischenräume, in denen die Musik stattfindet. Auch wenn sie kurz sind. Hier wird genau gehört und dann gespielt. Auch wenn hören und spielen zuweilen in eins zu fallen scheinen. Das alles sind Qualitäten, die koreanische Musik ebenso ausmachen wie europäische, nur in unterschiedlicher Art und Weise. Hier treffen sie transformiert in der Improvisation aufeinande
Cécile Olshausen, SRF 2 Kulturtipp, 2025
In free improvisation creative acts are the result of a series of implications that concern the personal sphere of each musician. Free improvisation is a communicative state based on previous skills, intuitions and openness to dialogue, a practice capable of avoiding that terrible questioning that afflicts written music, that is, considering whether it is a language with a stable grammar: given that one does not improvise from nothing, free improvisation is an almost therapeutic place, with expressions that meet on the basis of a tactile relationship.
Sylvain Monchocé and Daniel Studer seem to thrive in improvisational dialogue and a few months agothey published DUO for Impakt R., 7 improvisations between gayageum, a traditional instrument ofKorean origin and the double bass. We have already spoken about Studer several times on these pages(1), while this is the first time I mention Monchocé, a French multi-instrumentalist who also plays thesaxophone and flute very well with many extended techniques, sometimes even combining them with the gayageum in the same performance.
The first difference we perceive with respect to the normal world of improvised duets is thegayageum/double bass combination: Monchocé plays an instrument with a different understanding thana traditional Korean musician, even though he studied that tradition, because he realized that it is usefulto explore the instrument in other ways; I had never heard a gayageum/double bass combination in freeimprovisation before and Sylvain adopts an approach with a strong preponderance of extendedtechniques, all implemented during the performance: he caresses the strings, plucks them in variousways in some places or uses objects to deal with them, uses a bow to probe the strings near the frame ofthe instrument, rubs the strings with a thread, etc.; there is almost no space for oriental technicalconventions, those that we have come to know in musical literature thanks to the harmonic pizzicatithat presume an idiom. It is clear that in the improvisational dialogue there are common objectives, inthis case they are those explicitly declared on the ‘materials’, the ‘forms’ and the ‘time’: Monchocé andStuder set up a flexible discourse working on the strings, stylistically elusive, but endowed with anenviable communicative capacity. Both musicians play on instruments with a long strings and both usesimilar extended preparations/techniques (arco, pizzicato, sticks, splited strings, etc.). This ensures acoherence in the basic structure of the sound.
First Dialog is inhibitory, a meeting in an immaculate area between the timbres obtained from thegayageum and the depth of the harmonic resonances of the double bass; a chemistry on the non-harmonic recycling of some parts of the instruments is instead the domain of Second Dialog; in FourthDialog, the strange communication sees Studer move like a sloth while Monchocé works for a percussiveand quarrelsome connection; Fifth Dialog wedges itself between screeching strings, rustling, and amysterious sound; a slightly more conventional pizzicato frames the Sixth Dialog, where it is possible tomake distinctions between the timbres (2); an indecipherable work of craftsmanship comes out insteadfrom the conclusive Seventh Dialog, where we also find a circumstantial island to catch our breath. This duo is remarkable! It is truly difficult to find such a beautiful realization of intent around, it is an epiphany of improvised dialogue..
Ettore Garzia, Percorsi Musicali, 2025
Although rare combinations are becoming increasingly common in free improv, I have not encountered many, or maybe even a single, other gayageum-bass combo. Leave it to Daniel Studer, who has released a string of boundary-pushing releases over the years, to partake in such an experiment. His partner on this recording, Sylvain Monchocé, is new to me, though admittedly I am familiar with few other gayageum players apart from DoYeon Kim.
The music on the modestly titled Duois measured but powerful. Studer lays into his rubbings, stabs and fat-snap pizzicato, but also holds tones, which allows Monchocé space to scrape and strain his strings. I am not sure what traditional gayageum technique is, but Monchocé seems to be stretching that beyond its limits, offering no melodies and few crisp notes (Sixth Dialog being an exception for both musicians), but (figuratively) turning his instrument on its head, much as Studer does to his bass. Sometimes this results in harsh but beautiful moments of convergence, such as four minutes into the Fourth Dialogue. Even then, however, the instruments remain separate. I rarely mistake one for the other even among all the muted pizzicato, scrapes, various contortions, and other opportunities for the strings to blend. Instead, the timbres balance one another. I am not sure I am surprised, but Duo is certainly a unique but wonderfully complementary pairing that shuns the classical European and Korean idioms in pursuit of non-traditional, denationalized, and particularly fertile common ground.
Nick Ostrum, The Free Jazz Collective, 2025
Oltre a dilettarsi con sassofoni e flauti assortiti, Sylvain Monchoce ha anche sviluppato un interesse verso il gayageum, strumento della tradizione coreana apparentabile al guzheng cinese e al koto del Sol Levante. II "Duo" con il contrabbassista Daniel Studer e l'incontro di spiriti liberi, votati all'impiego di tecniche estese sui rispettivi attrezzi da lavoro e alla ricerca di dimensioni sonore che se per un versa affondano carnalmente nella materia, nei legni e nelle corde, perlustrati in maniera millimetrica, per un altro si offrono magicamente evanescenti e sfumate, danzanti creature incorporee. Di rado il gayageum risuona come dovrebbe, e lo stesso si puo dire del contrabbasso: soltanto nel Sixth Dialog entrambi offrono la percezione di un'apparente normalita, di corde pizzicate come si dovrebbe, quasi i due artisti volessero mostrare, con un filo di scoperta ironia, quanto in la sono riusciti ad andare nel resto dell'incisione.
Piercarlo Poggio, Blow Up, 2024
…"Resolutely Western-leaning, despite his instrument’s Asian origin Monchoché, who is also an academic, widens the gayageum’s reverb to involve many of his strings in supple group motions, ringing banjo-like twangs and single strokes ranging from prestissimo to intermittent. For his part Studer often adds a percussive continuum with col legno slaps, spiccato drones or thick wood thumps. Synergy isn’t reserved for basement tones however. On “Fifth Dialog” for instance, the bassist’s arco pitches vibrate at such an elevated degree that it sounds as if they’re electrified. After a pause, Monchoché responds with energetic low timbres that match Studer’s initial stridency with slide whistle-like screams.
The most dawn-out instance of this contest is “Fourth Dialog”. Responsive scrubs, swabs and strain lobby back and forth as the bassist begins to pick out a melodic tune. In contrast the gayageum’s multi-strings soon project the sort of shriek you’d hear scouring a scab eventually working up to bell-tolling intimations as the bassist’s echoing stops steadies the exposition."
Ken Waxman, Jazzword, 2025