Crack

Pierre Bastien and the Male Instrumenty inhabit a world of tiny instruments. It’s a strange world where a rubber duck or a piece of meccano is as valid an instrument as a piano or guitar.

French composer Bastien and the Polish Male Instrumenty (small instruments) came to Bristol’s Arnolfini as part of their UK tour and brought along some of their tiny instruments with them. I say some, because The Male Instrumenty normally tour with 200 tiny pianos but they couldn’t fit them all on the bus. These guys are amazing, awe-inspiring and certainly a little odder than your average four-piece indie outfit.

Male Instrumenty are a five-piece from Poland who make music- using kids toys and other inanimate objects. They look like a group of ordinary folk, albeit a good group of acquaintances who have put together a band. However, these guys are no amateurs and it is clear that both the Male Instrumenty and Bastien take their music incredibly seriously. At one point, using two toy pianos, one member of the Male Instrumenty played the part the left hand should play while another member played the corresponding right handed part to a piece by Frédéric Chopin. It’s pretty surreal to watch five grown men sitting at toy pianos surrounded by what looked like the remnants of a crèche.

Male Instrumenty describe themselves as experimental /nu-jazz and their music meanders from the exceptionally intricate and experimental, to more naive, slapstick sounding, circus music. This change of tempo and juxtaposition of contrasting types of music make the audience actually laugh out loud.

Headlining the tour is well renowned and much respected surrealist musician Pierre Bastien. Bastien makes music the older generation would most likely describe as ‘just noise’ or something equally damning. I suppose essentially Bastien’s music is just noise, noises made from mechanised bits and bobs like the strumming of an elastic band and the sound of paper fluttering in the wind. For the most part, Bastien’s intricate instrument is made up of meccano and powered by turntable motors. Bastien’s experimenting come together and creates music that lulls the listener into a trance. If you try to work out how each different noise is made, you forget to appreciate that the magic lies in all the collectively of the sounds.

Bastien accidentally started making this kind of music in a bid to better hear his metronome. He placed two pans either side of the machine and accidentally stumbled across the sound. Existing in a realm outside of what would be considered mainstream music, at one point he played a pocket trumpet with a straw in its bell that led to a glass of water so that the sound was broken and distorted.

Bastien looks the epitome of an eccentric French musician with wild dark hair and intense eyes. One audience member made the mistake of walking in front him during his set to go to the toilet. Big faux pas on his part, the look he got from Bastien made Chairman Mao look like a member of the Micky Mouse Club.
Other strings to Bastien’s already impressive bow is he released an album on Rephlex, the same record label as Aphex Twin, has collaborated with Robert Wyatt and Issey Miyake and even went on tour with Squarepusher.

His dreamlike music is probably not everyone’s bag, but you can’t fault the guy for his originality and dedication to transforming everyday inanimate objects and effectively blurring the lines between conventional and obscure music. His music makes you question traditional musical ideologies and is a constant reminder you should never take conventional music too seriously.



Words: Lucinda Bounsall

http://www.pierrebastien.com/

http://www.myspace.com/maleinstrumenty

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