Ecorcha/Taillée

La Tène's latest album, Ecorcha/Taillée, is a two-track journey into the depths of the experimental avant-garde. The French-Swiss trio are joined by four guest musicians on this disc, which was recorded live in one unedited take, featuring a variety of bagpipes including the cabrette (a small bagpipe connected to Auvergne) alongside hurdy-gurdy, harmonium, 12-string guitar, bass and percussion. Like their previous releases, the album consists of two long, wordless tracks totalling around 15 minutes each. The repetitive nature of the music is its most distinctive feature, lending a hypnotic, trance feeling to La Tène's pieces, but the unsettling, high-pitched drone on ‘L’Ecorcha’, which slides in and out of key, becomes quite grating after the first five minutes. There's an interesting mix of both acoustic and electronic sounds that meld together in an unexpected way, but the overall effect is one that's somewhat hard to connect to when detached from the concert setting.

Undeniably ambitious, you've got to give La Tène credit for the impressive textures they've managed to achieve through a live performance, but the full trance-like effect is a little lost on the album. This is one to see in person.