Maybe the commercial edition of this CD looks different then the review copy, but it was the fact that there was a press release to this CD, so I know the title is 'Treatise - Cornelius Cardew'. Cardew wrote the open ended score in some 140 pages which musicians are freely to interpretate the graphic lines, dots and other graphic excitements in their music, using whatever they think is necessary to do an interpretation. It's a work that Formanex can handle. They are a four piece group from Nantes playing bass, computers, guitar, electronics, percussion, saxophone, objects and above all computers. The near silent minutes that start this CD is interrupted by one of those deep end peep sounds that only computers seem to make rightly these days. Formanex dwell only on improvisation. Like their predecessor, 'Live In Extrapool' (reviewed in Vital Weekly 270) there is still traces of the classic AMM approach, but it seems to me that Formanex have progressed since then. Their improvisations have matured, are more open and use to a greater extent the laptop as the basic fundament of their music. Of course it's impossible to say wether this is a good performance of Cardew's Treatise (nor can we ask the man himself), but that is probably beside the point anyway. A score like Treatise should trigger thoughts between musicians and set them off playing together. Formanex succeed well in this. (FdW)
