Gil J. Wolman

Wolman et Son Double Gil J. Wolman

Vinyl LP pressing. Wolman et son double, a previously unreleased recording probably from the late '70s, is Wolman's most theatrical - as well as musical and lyrical - piece. This is due to it's duration and above all to it's experimental recording techniques - Wolman records a series of improvisations on a 30-minute track, then mixes them with a new series of mégapneumes. The mixing and manipulations with echo and Larsen effects are a novelty if compared to the other mégapneumes recordings. The first track begins with a hum, immediately overlaid by Wolman's "poésie physique": hoarseness, cough, strangulation, twisting, wheeze, rumbling, hiccups, asphyxia; a whole set of gripes against himself and his speech. Wolman breaths and winces, he mimes the impacts, the scars of the blows by an invisible fighter, actually his double. Wolman et son double suggests a theatrical set, with characters entering the stage of the mégapneume. They are archetypes rather than psychological characters: a dybbuk or an old witch with a sardonic laugh; the drum major with his martial clicks; several warbling, trumpeting and barking animals, mad masters of a human speech conspiracy. Before the piece's end, an insolent call for a national strike is heard. Artaud observed that "actors in France no longer know how to do anything but talk"; Wolman et son double may well be the national strike from that show, from "masterpiece" art.