Tchak

Description

Un Drame Musical Instantane were founded in 1976, featuring Jean-Jacques Birge, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorge. Their aim was to promote collective musical creation, co-signing their albums, which they consider as artworks in themselves, or their live shows which they tried to renew every time they played. Their sound was created with many influences: They borrowed their sources from rock (synthesizer player Birge and guitarist Gorge, both authors of the album, Defense de); jazz (trumpeter Vitet who founded the first free jazz band in France, together with Francois Tusques, as well as Michel Portal who played with many American and European jazzmen); classical modern music; as well as movies or world news; they were the first in France to give a new impetus to live music on silent movies. After having improvised freely for many years, they led a fifteen piece orchestra from 1981 to 1986, and from 1989 onwards they produced multimedia shows (live video remix on a giant screen, fireworks, choreographies). Still their music was the most important technique, they called their recordings "blind cinema". The Drame used to mix acoustic and electronic instruments in real time as well as original instruments built by Vitet (a reed trumpet, a multiphonic French horn, a variable tension double-bass, a giant balafon with frying pans and flower pots keyboard, a fire organ, plexiglas flutes, etc.). After Francis Gorge left the band in 1992, Birge and Vitet went on recording and producing with other musicians close to the "family" such as percussionist, Gerard Siracusa, or multi-instrumentalist, Helene Sage. Un Drame Musical Instantane always remained independent (they always owned their own recording studio and record label GRRR) and stopped its activities in 2008, with 2022 seeing the return of the group with a new album. Tchak! presents the group's last recordings with Bernard Vitet: 5 pieces with the Machiavel Quartet (2000) plus one remixed with singer Baco (2005), 1 piece live at Glaz'Art (1998) and 1 at Studio GRRR with Birge and Vitet (1998).