The system has crashed and we nervously float through a spiral galaxy
Le Pot’s album is the first of a planned trilogy, She–Hera–Zade. After crossing paths in outfits such as Manuel Mengis‘ Gruppe 6, they committed to this project with Mengis on trumpet and electronics, Hans-Peter Pfammatter playing Moog and synthesisers, drummer Lionel Friedli and Manuel Troller on electric guitar. This instalment, She, has thrown off the shackles of melody and musical convention and is driven by atmosphere, environment, feeling. The electronics provide a subtle, post-Apocalyptic white noise; the system has crashed and we nervously float through a spiral galaxy.
This interplay creates expansive landscapes
Ariel Alert sets up the ride with its cacophony of smashing cymbals and firing drum rolls, psyched-out guitar and trumpet, part-quivering, part-soaring. It leads into the track I keep re-playing, Part 1 Desert Whale Song. A sublime sound-piece where the ever-present electronics are so subtle you can’t tell where the instruments stop and they begin. This interplay creates expansive landscapes and mysterious visions: here the band appears as a disorientated submarine in the deepest of pitch-black oceans. The denouement escalates to an animalistic attack of Mengis’ braying brass, distorted guitar and drum blows, that had me on the edge of my seat.
Electronics are the threads invisibly sewing it all together
Throughout the album, the trumpet chatters, squeals, cries in pain but rarely sings – there is a sense of skilful playing and a wilful rejection of tradition, although I could sense echoes of ‘electric Miles’ (Davis). It is perfectly matched by the guitar’s imaginings: from fuzzy strums to almost inaudible bending notes and tripped-out chords. The drumming is a-rhythmical, barging into the argument with its own opinions; sparse and jagged, whilst the synths and electronics are the threads invisibly sewing it all together into a dark collage.
An echoing guitar drives the track off the cliff into freefall
It’s as if their idea is to drag music back in time to primal grunts or break it even further down into fizzing atoms. They are not always successful in this, but what I am taken by is the quartet’s commitment to space in their music; they allow each sound to breathe and exist even when they build to discordant climaxes such as in Part II Phili’s Boat Bursting or Gezinkt Sind Wir Alle. In this piece the instruments intensify their squabbling chatter; bass notes underpinning frantic trumpet squeals and insistent electric loops, before an echoing guitar drives the track off the cliff into freefall. There is almost a sense of post-punk electronica here with keyboards, guitar and drums uniting in a vague melody.
This is what I think should have been developed – a more tangible shape, even if for one track in order to pull the album back from drifting into clever noodling. Having said that, I enjoyed the trip very much and am looking forward to Hera – which the band say will be an acoustic reflection on the motives of the British composer Benjamin Britten. Le Pot are a band we should all be keeping our ears open for.
« Laisse moi essayer quelque chose de neuf » entend-on, d’une voix plaintive, au détour du cinquième album des 
Von Ridgecrest nach Sion
Graced with ambidextrous talents, Joy is mistress of many synths and sound machines, often distorting her voice and playing it back as haunting accompaniment or backing vocals. An impressive wall of sound is at times created between herself and partner as in “Doondari”, where dark voice effects and heavy synth rhythms clash with swirling drum beats as menacing as a locust storm. Contrast this with a playful singing voice that combines rare soothing sweetness and reassuring confidence. ‘No Problem Saloon’ exudes compassionate observation of humanity and wraps it up in multi-textured, exhuberant electronic soundscapes.
Roll up, roll up to 
Marcel Gschwend ist 
Attention! ce jeune groupe de Berne est entrain de bousculer le monde du jazz. 