Denis Frajerman
French composer born in 1967.
French Wikipedia => here
The beginnings
Born in a family keen on art, music, and literature, he was greatly influenced as a child by the French songs of Brel, Brassens, Ferrat, jazz, and baroque music. Other inspirations came to hone his interests: the Hungarian group Kolinda, and the albums of Angelique Ionatos... He studied literature, and thought for a while to become a writer, when at age 19 he discovered contemporary dance at the Avignon festival in the South of France, and was fascinated by their music.
He then slowly abandons literature for music.
He takes lessons in classical guitar, followed by jazz, from age 9 to 21.
In 1988, a friend introduces him to Philippe Perreaudin during a Parisian festival called Musiques de Traverses. They are both impressed by the cast: Blurt, Annie Anxiety and The Ex. It’s then that they start experimenting with sound. Denis on “bruitiste” guitar and Philippe on analog keyboards and drums. They are marked by the experimental and industrial scene of the period, with groups like Etron fou Leloublan, Blurt, The Residents, Faust, Art Zoyd, Tuxedomoon, Wire, Minimal Compact, the list is much longer.
Very rapidly, Denis chooses the bass guitar, and they rehearse as a trio with a viola. The owners of their rehearsal studio adore their one and only piece giving an oriental feel to Gilgamesh and record it on an 8-track tape-recorder.
The viola leaves and the two friends find, through adverts, two musicians 15 years older: Philippe Masson (clarinet) and Jacques Barberi (sax). The chemistry is immediate and the four of them form Palo Alto in 1989.
Solo career
Denis Frajerman is greatly influenced by ethnic musics, from the Balkans, the Middle-East, and also jazz and classical music. He freely uses polyrhythms in his compositions.
Working on electroacoustics is also a passion of his. He always mixes magnetic tracks to his first compositions.
Sound is most important. He brings particular care to his mixings, never using a computer but a tape-recorder K7-4 track, followed by a tape-recorder 8 tracks and nowadays a numerical tape-recorder 24 tracks and an analog mixing table 32 voices with some special effects added...
K7 years and the meet with Antoine Volodine
- In 1995 the French label Prikosnovénie make an order a K7 for his collection Miniatures (Miniature 19).
They are beautiful objects of 5’ to face. The K7 is called Drosophiles :
- In 1997 the French label Organic make an order two K7: Le Nom des arbres (with an original text from Jacques Barbéri) and Mandibules illustrated by Stéphane Blanquet.
Le Nom des arbres 0T048
Jacques Barbéri: saxophone-texte
Sonia Deluze: design
Omer Pesquer: design
Denis Frajerman: composition
Nathalie Dray: vocals
Sylvain Treuil, Gérard Bôman: percussion
Philippe Perreaudin: voice
Philippe Masson: clarinette
Mandibules 0T050
Sylvain Treuil and Gérard Bôman: percussion illustrated by Stéphane Blanquet
- In 1996, was born the first collaboration with Antoine Volodine for the program Clair de Nuit on France Culture: Quatre poèmes en prose d’Antoine Volodine total duration: 13’49
That is the first time he compose for strings and record them.
Quatre poèmes en prose d’Antoine Volodine
Jacques Barbéri: alto saxophone
Régis Codur: electric guitar
Denis Frajerman: keyboards, tapes
Emmanuelle Frantz: violin
Hélène Frissung: violin
Aline Lebert: voice
Aurore Pingard: cello
Éric Roger: trumpet, cornet
Antoine Volodine: narrator
Hervé Zénouda: percussion
The years 2000
Denis Frajerman signs in 1998 with the Yann Farcy label: Noise Museum (ex cult label l’Invitation au suicide) for tree albums.
Les Suites Volodine, 1998; Fasmes (1999); Macau Peplum (1999).
Les Suites Volodine
Jacques Barbéri: alto saxophone
Sandrine Bonnet: percussion, voice
Régis Codur: electric guitar
Denis Frajerman: keyboards, bass, percussion, exotic instruments
Marc Resconi: trombone
Eric Roger: cornet
Hervé Zénouda: percussion
CD with an original text from Antoine Volodine
Fasmes
Jacques Barbéri: saxophone
Sandrine Bonnet: voice
Régis Codur: guitar
Denis Frajerman: keyboards, bass, percussion, exotic instruments
Eric Roger: cornet
Hervé Zénouda: zarb
Macau Peplum
Jacques Barbéri: alto saxophone, choirs
Sandrine Bonnet: vocals, percussion, keyboards
Denis Frajerman: keyboards, bass, percussion, exotic instruments, choirs
Frédéric d’Oliveira: percussion
Yannick Lemesle: violin, clarinet, vocals
Arnaud Ouvrard: percussion
Philippe Perreaudin: computer
Eric Roger: cornet, vocals
Susannah Rooke: voice
Hervé Zénouda: zarb
With a strong interest in literature and orality as a musician, he collaborates regularly with storytellers and writers for radio sessions, oratorios, or records.
Strongly linked to the work of Antoine Volodine, his first solo album, Les Suites Volodine (Noise Musem/Naïve, 1999), was directly influenced by his writings. They both share a taste for haunting atmospheres, black humor, witchcraft.
Volodine and Frajerman also worked on creations, Des Anges Mineurs, post-exotic oratorio composed for six musicians, singer, narrator, dancer and videographer (La Cigale, 2000), and Vociférations, cantopera for eleven musicians, ordered by the Radiophonic Creation Workshops of France Culture (2004). The broadcasting on Radio France of this last work was followed by a residency at the Lieu Unique, National Theatre of Nantes for the concert version.
In 2003 is out at the initiative of Jacques Barbéri, Le Souffle du vide, a CDr of old tapes limited to 50, where the solitary work on magnetic tapes is first. The album is out on Palo Alto records, Halte aux Records.
His interest growing for string composition, he founds a rather special quartet, The Frajerman string quartet with Hélène Frissung on violin, Fanny Kobus on viola, Carole Deville on cello, and himself on bass guitar and pre-recorded background tracks.
They perform about 15 concerts from 2000 at 2005, and produce a live album in 2003 with the Laurent Rochelle label Linoleum.
He creates a short-lived nightmare pop group, The Blizzard Sow with the poet Guillaume/William Boppe and takes on the pseudonym El Faroud. They invent a mythology peopled with redneck, bayou and blizzard… They record an album Baagou music in 2004 on the neofolk French label Cynffeird. They carry on recording but do not find any label for their out-of-sync pop and they shut down their activities few years later.
In 2008 a produces Vociférations, cantopera under the label Le Cluricaun.
Vociférations
Jacques Barbéri: alto saxophone
Stephano Cavazzini: drums
Carole Deville: cello
Denis Frajerman: keyboards, magnetic tapes, rhythms
Hélène Frissung: violin
Keny II: sampler, rhythmes additionnels
Fanny Kobus: viola
Lise N: whispers
Géraldine Ros: vocals
Antoine Volodine: narrator
The years 2010
The beginning of the 2010 years are dire. No more labels, no more concerts.
Except a major event: a new collaboration with Antoine Volodine in 2015. Writing music for Terminus Radieux at La Maison de la Poésie in Paris, for two mezzo-sopranos (Justine Schaeffer and Emilie Nicot), a cellist (Carole Deville) and himself on folk guitar.
Another album, Rivières de la nuit, in preparation for some years, doesn’t find an interested label.
Denis Frajerman works hard on remixing this highly orchestrated, with numerous guests: strings, winds, female voices and Rhys Chattham on trumpet.
Rivières de la nuit
Guillaume Boppe: texts
Rhys Chattham: trumpet
Jérémy Chinour: cymbals
Carole Deville: cello
Denis Frajerman: guitars, maracas, small percussion, gratin dish, Indian bells, wooden cheese grater
Hélène Frissung: violin
Cassandre Girard: flute
Fanny Kobus: viola
Sophie M: vocals
Daniel Palomo-Vinuesa: saxophones
Laurent Rochelle: bass clarinet, soprano saxophone
Géraldine Ros: vocals
Justine Schaffer: voice, vocals
Loïc Schild: drums, percussion, cymbals
Thereafter, conception and production last 7 years.
Finally, in 2017, he self produces this album under his mark Douzième lune. He distributes himself in France, but fails to find interest elsewhere. However, Petra Gehrmann/Metisse music, his faithful editor, deals with promotion abroad, and the album becomes very popular in the underground movement, and is played on many national radios.
The writer Xavier Boissel finds in its inspiration for his same-named Rivières de la nuit (Editions Inculte)
The coming out of this album was followed by a series of concert in Paris, where he writes the music for the book of poems by Guillaume Boppe, Le Coude is himself on bass, and accompanied by David Fenech on guitar, Carole Deville on cello, Justine Schaeffer on voice.
He also accompanies live, his friend Klimperei (aka Christophe Petchanaz).
In 2018, another album is published, influenced by the post-exotic universe of Antoine Volodine: Herbes et golems, under the German label Psych.KG. Denis Frajerman plays all the instruments: guitars, bass, shakers, percussion, gratin dish, indian bells, cheese grater, wind instruments, keyboards, voice, music box, magnetic tracks recordings of nature noises…
In 2019, he signs with the mythical Austrian label Klanggalerie, a two part album, Wastelands / Lawrence of Arabia.
Wastelands comprises lyrical pieces dominated by the haunting voice of Susannah Rooke.
Jérémy Chinour: drums
Carole Deville: cello
Hélène Frissung: violin
Denis Frajerman: guitar, bass, keyboards
Laurent Rochelle: bass clarinet, soprano saxophone
Susannah Rooke: voice
Quentin Rollet: sopranino saxophone
Extracts from TS Elliott, The Waste Land, titles of album and pieces chosen by Susannah Rooke. The latter appears in other works by Denis Frajerman: Macau Peplum and the album Trash et Artères of Palo Alto.
Lawrence of Arabia. Comprises mainly titles written for compilations, like those of Yann Pilas / No records and two covers: one of Minimal Compact and one of Amon Düül II.
Claude Chalhoub: violin
Carole Deville: cello
Denis Frajerman: keyboards, bass, guitar, percussion, voice, tapes
Hélène Frissung: violin
Fanny Kobus: viola
Loïc Schild: zarb, percussion
Daniel Palomo-Vinuesa: soprano saxophone
Quentin Rollet: sopranino saxophone
Guy Maddin, Stéphane Blanquet, cinema, live shows
In 1997 he creates with the choreographer Sandrine Bonnet, the Co. Le Chiendent based on fusion between contemporary dance and live music. The first work comprises dance solo, musician on invented instruments and slide of the artist Philippe Demontaux.
The second outing counts a wider collaboration: tree dancers and tree musicians (Régis Codur on guitar, Denis Frajerman on bass, Jérémy Chinour on drums – the later becoming the composer’s own designer, and a guest for some concerts Yannick Lemesle on violin and clarinet). The Co. then tours successfully in festivals of contemporary and new music in France.
The Co. Le Chiendent still exists nowadays but under another format.
In 1998, he meets the artist Stephane Blanquet. A producer had asked him to produce a series of short films for Canal+ on the theme Vivement l’An 2000. Denis Frajerman did write the music and soundtracks of his films.
From the beginning of his solo career, through his good friends, distributors and editors of DVD Ed Distribution, Denis Frajerman forges a lasting friendship with the Canadian film maker Guy Maddin. The latter used lots of Denis Frajerman’String Quartet for two of his short films in 2004: Sissy-Boy Slap Party, and Sombra Dolorosa.
In 2003, he takes part in the sound track of Les Frileux de la Terre, a medium-length film by Christophe Le Borgne, for Canal+.
He writes for producers Fabrice Vacher et Claire Judrin for two documentaries : Avenue Jenny in 2005 and Club Bigoudi in 2007.
From 2008, he starts a close collaboration with the storyteller Valérie Briffaud, Co Les Emus, who works in object theatre. He writes the music for a show for the very young, Les Poules, then L’Echappée, a splendid show for all public, where alone on scene with a Bicycle and small accessories, Valérie Briffaud tells us a poignant story.
A great fan of the Art of puppetry, he had discovered a very young artist, Cristina Iosif, at a festival in 2011. He then shares his music with her, and in 2017, she asks him to take part in the sound track of her new show called Harmonie.
Solos albums
Wastelands / Lawrence of Arabia (CD, Klanggalerie) - 2019
Herbes et golems (CD, Psych.KG) - 2018
Rivières de la Nuit (CD + LP, Douzième lune) - 2017
Vociférations, with Antoine Volodine (CD, France Culture / Le Cluricaun) - 2008
Frâjerman String Quartet (CD, Linoleum) - 2004
Le Souffle du Vide (CDr, archives 92-95, Halte aux Records) - 2003
Macau Peplum (CD, Noise Museum/Naïve) - 2000
Le Civisme en chanson (CD, Tremplin théâtre) - 1999
Fasmes (CD, Noise Museum/Naïve) - 1999
Les Suites Volodine (CD, Noise Museum/Naïve) - 1998
Mandibules (K7, Organic) - 1997
Le Nom des arbres (K7, Organic) - 1997
With The Blizzard Sow
Baagou music (Cynfeirdd) - 2004
With Palo Alto
About a dozen albums since 1989
Links
https://denisfrajermanlabeldouzimelune.bandcamp.com/
https://www.metisse-music.com/fr/artists/Denis%20Frajerman
https://www.linoleum-records.com/shop
https://www.norecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.discogs.com/fr/label/89882-E-Klageto
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg292
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4omne0aI2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAXM_P19jQA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXh3KCmQqmc
https://www.rumbatraciens.com/paloalto/site.php
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