HÉRVE PEREZ – L’APRÈS MONDES with HENRY HERTEMAN and various types of meditative music (2024) (Bandcamp)

Herve Perez is a saxophonist and shakuhachi player (a Japanese end-blown flute) and self-confessed laptop music maker and sound designer, the acoustics, space and topography of his musical environments being of utmost importance. I remember reviewing his “Inclusion Principle”, an album with MARTIN ARCHER and PETER FAIRCLOUGH released on Discus a few years back and have reviewed one of his listening meditation albums on DISS recently.

He has been a very busy man during 2024 so far releasing a plethora of albums including a series of field recordings of various English soundscapes. He also has an album called “Three Voices” which, if you are a student of the saxophone perhaps, may be of interest in terms of how manipulating layers of processed sax. He has also released another Nada listening meditation album with laptop, meditation bells and shakuhachi and live inside Sheffield Cathedral; bird song features prominently in much of his music.

Of most personal interest to me was his lockdown album made at a distance with French trombonist, pianist and bells player Henry Herteman with exchanges of music across the Channel, Hérve contributing alto sax and field recordings in a digital cut up and paste project to produce four electro acoustic pieces which contain some intriguing experimental jazz which cannot truly be described as free form although it resembles such, as the music is produced in a highly structured fashion which may appeal to the most broad minded of free Jazzers.