"Snippets of scuzzy dialogue from Jessica Constable and Philippe Gelda’s hazy hisses, microphonic dust and falling, declamatory rhythms twine and develop richly immersive improvised sound pieces. The two have been collaborating since 1991 and it shows, as the album reveals an astounding display of improvised brinkmanship, teetering on total collapse but somehow staying its own unpredictable course.

Pieces are generally collage-like in their sharp, beguiling juxtapositions of tone and atmosphere, the sixteen tracks achieving a very particular, sustained mood - in part intuitive, searching and detached, in part flanked with distress.

“Bitter” begins with gentle insistence: an increasingly complex cluster of tonal fluctuations that continue and further the sinister mood to “Cailou Tremblant”, a sudden intervention stuttering organ stabs and jittery percussion gliding around a spontaneous melody. Constable’s raspy, full-bodied voice often glides in as if from another world. She sounds altogether otherworldly on “Major Changes”, all sparsely deployed percussion, organ and electronic drones that build into an insistent, trancelike piece of chanted repetition.

From these microscopically and metaphysically amplified pieces, the two shift with noticeable poise to more ferocious and unforgiving moments howling electronic noise and barked vocals, and then to elegant, star-blasted songs - “Overflow” - of a dreamlike detachment and a cosmic sense of vastness. From start to finish, The Vine and Vein Collection is a bold summation of the duo at their intense best."

                                                                                                                            Max Schaeffer CYCLIC DEFROST MAGAZINE

MAITRES CORBEAUX  (master crows)   

Jessica Constable and Philippe Gelda have been composing and improvising together since 1991. 

Their suites for voice and piano ( or other keyboards) have been performed in venues ranging from  jazz clubs to a shepherds cabin. The suites are usually composed with a specific venue in mind.

UPRIGHT

Philippe Gelda prepares upright piano using everyday objects like beer mats and clothes pegs. These bring out unusual percussive and harmonic qualities which make reference to contempory electronic music or echo the atmospherics of old and battered pianos. Philippe also uses organ and other keyboards.

TEXTLY

Jessica Constable sings written texts or stream-of -consciousness lyrics that she uses to explore resonance and texture. She sometimes uses electronic filters, echos and modulation.

THE BEST BITS

Their songs, improvisations and lyrics are usually simple and usually concise. They are edited down until all that's left are The Best and Favourite Bits. They use a lot of repetition, melodies of  few notes and few harmonic changes. 

                                       photo: Manuela Dupuis 

 THE SPECIAL SUITES (and their original performance venues)

 Fine Wine and Let me be Laughing Woman (for voices and keybords) (Pianos Saurin, Toulouse 1992)

 Garden Suite ( for voice and piano) (Pianos Saurin, Toulouse 1993)

 Two Rhodes Suites (for voice and rhodes) (33 Rue Croix-Baragnon, Toulouse, 1996)

 Melodica Suite (for voice and melodica) (13 Rue des Changes, Toulouse 1997)

 The Chapel Suite (for Voice and Toy Organ) (La Chapelle Casenova,Toulouse, 1998)

 Day Suite  (for voice and prepared upright piano) (La Cave Poesie,Toulouse,1999)                                       

 Toy Suite ( for Voice and Toy Piano (Festival Trans-Pyreneen France/Spain,2000)                                             

 La suite des Anches (for voice and prepared  piano) (Festival Jazz a  Luz, 2000)                                              

 Cinema Suite (for voice, prepared piano and hammond organ) (Cinema de Plaisance du Gers, 2001)           

 Fly Suite (for voice and prepared upright piano) (Le Bijou,Toulouse, 2001)                                                        

 Cool Things for Voice and Organ (for Voice and Organ) (Le Salon Bocal, Toulouse,2003)               

 Backroom Collection (for voice, piano and organ) (Le Mandala,Toulouse, 2006) 

Flood Film (voice, organ) (Theatre du Hangar, Toulouse 2007)       

Listen

                                                                                                                                 photo: Alain Alquier