(Vital Weekly) Two heavyweights from the wide world of improvised music teaming up together. In the left corner, we find Guro Skumsnes Moe. We know her from her work on the double bass, octobass and electric bass (and vocalist) with such groups as MoE and Sult, collaborator with Lasse Marhaug, and productions for movie and dance performances. In the right corner is Philippe Petit, once working with turntables and occupied with modular electronics these days. His collaborators include Lydia Lunch, Murcof, Mark Cunningham, Cindytalj and many others. As much info as we have on their respective backgrounds, there isn't much about the actual record they recorded together. Moe is on octabass (that's the spelling on Bandcamp), electric bass and voice and Petit on EMS synthi A, turntables and voice. The recordings were made in June 2020. The first of the piece, '..', made me think we landed heavily in the world of improvised music, with a bare synth tone and some voice. But soon enough, the album takes on a much different course. The music snowballs into a heavy mass of sound of thick drones of both the synthesizer and the bass. Somewhere the voice (Moe's more than Petit, I think) returns and creates more weight on the music. Noisy, sure, but that seems not to be the goal of the music. It is something hard to escape. The other long piece is called '...', which I like better. The interaction is more together, more composition than improvisation, I thought. Probably they're not loops, but that's what the music sounds like in the first half. For some reason, this piece consists of two parts, of which the second is a bit more chaotic than the first half; a deliberate contrast, perhaps, but one that works quite well. The music here is not easily accessed by the listener and comes with a threshold of noise involved. Once you cross that level, the music is as beautiful and heavy as a black hole. The short in-between 'Interlude' may serve as a passage between these long movements but can also be ignored as a mere set of small sounds. - Frans de Waard

(Avant Music News) Guro Skumsnes Moe and Philippe Petit’s self-titled release features the French analogue synthesizer master with Norwegian Moe, who in addition to electric bass and vocals is represented here on the Octobass, a rare, enormous, three-string double bass that sounds in a rumblingly low register. The instrument is a strong presence on the release’s two long tracks—its strings vibrate at such a low frequency one can almost see them as they underscore the sonic kaleidoscope thrown out by Petit’s EMI synth and turntables. The third track, a two-minute interlude between the two longer pieces, offers an economical distillation of the duo’s collective sound. - Daniel Barbiero

(Bad Alchemy) GURO SKUMSNES MOE & PHILIPPE PETIT (PE151) eine trotz der beidseitigen Abenteuerlust unerwartete Paarung. Unter Flechten­ optik erwarten einen die namenlosen, durch ein 'Interlude' verbundenen Tracks '.' (19:14) & '..' (22:02), eingesponnen mit den ominösen Sätzen: The pendulum swings did quiet down, vacuumsly wombed / The abyss had long been empty and it felt better to deepen it. Poe und doch nicht Poe, aber definitiv Moe, mit Octabass – wie in The Touchables - & E-Bass – wie zuletzt bei MoE & Buxa Maria oder y Escalantes. Zu Petits EMS Synthi A & Turn­tables, der sich dabei an seine raueren Begegnungen erinnert haben dürfte, mit etwa PAS Musique oder Ron Anderson, Pepper & Tamura. Moe gibt zwar Laute von sich, als hätte sie Angst um ihren Nagellack, aber murkst und grollt doch mit ihrem Monsterbass un­glaublich deep und abyssal, dabei umsurrt, bepixelt, umzuckt, umwellt mit Petits Elektro­mulm und -schrott. Moe dongt, sägt, knarrt die Saiten mit dem Bogen und schreit wie eine Banshee, Petit schraubt auf Hochtouren, das brummige, tröpfelige, furzige Zwischenspiel kommt gerade noch rechtzeitig als Comic relief. Auch '..' dröhnt und wabert in wenn nicht dunkleren so doch raueren Regionen als den dark ambienten mit Michael Schaffer, feucht furzelnd und alarmiert sirrend, nachdem der Bass wie ein knurriger Golem aufmarschiert ist, nach täuschender Stille ums Haus tigert und den EMS in Panik versetzt. Die sägende, zwitschernde, ächzende, flattrige Kakophonie schwankt zwischen Tumult und dem ko­mischen Versuch, als R2-D2 mit Dachschaden Notrufe abzusenden. - Rigobert Dittmann

(Raised by Cassettes) This CD begins with the sounds like something revving up- a chainsaw perhaps- and then it turns into this full on nuclear blast warning siren. There is this strange twisting sound, but almost like someone is cutting wood also, as a voice lets out "ah" and "oh" sounds on top of it all. A lot of creaking in that wooden way now as well. The sound feels more dark and ominous now, as there is some scraping, and then lasers come through like birds. Up and down the tones go before sharper beeping comes in like a droid. Haunted now, echoes are coming out that begin to sound like voices and even laughter. Strong engine power now. Whirrs cutting through like a flight scene in Star Wars. Everything just feels like moving pieces now and I like it. A motor begins to sound as if it is failing, this turns to a sort of video game vibe before the loud distorted bursts come blasting through as well. Lasers whirrs are just all over the place and the electronics of robots can be heard once again as well. Lighter tones seem to be dancing around behind this sharper sound, which is sort of droning as well. The sound of a lone drum banging now, then dropping back into distortion. That sound of the singing comes back in with this distortion now. It begins to feel as if a spaceship is taking off, but those vocals persist in high pitched frequencies. A little bit of Pole Position in here with the voice now. Beeps come through one by one now, breaking through the distortion. The sound now feels like that of back and forth church bells, but they begin to also feel as if they are scraping. Still distorted, still beeping. Somewhat like a door creaking open, somewhat like a baby screaming. The Interlude has this dark Pole Position bass to it, which comes with scraping and other movements in sound. It feels as if the frequency is being changed, like a radio station, as it goes a bit all over the place at the end. Now we start with some rather sharp droning. Darker now, there is a bit of shaking as well. There is some back and forth in here, as if we're drifting at sea, and then it just crashes down with this loud thump that feels like lightning. Sounds like a water sprinkler begin to build. Louder now, this all comes through in a rather certain engine sound which just has a strong destruction feel to it as well. It slows down into beeps and then a droning type of almost-sharp tones. Strings come in now to give it that Alfred Hitchcock vibe. I have headphones on and this grows quiet enough now that I can hear someone knocking but not at my door. It kicks back in with a darker type of basement feel with these stretches of motors. There is a bit of electricity in here as well, as we wind and find the path. This all turns into droid beeping, rustling and then the electronics even begin to say Wall-E. Ringing now, like a pinball machine. The electronics, as robotic beeping, are really making the most of the sound here and it just feels as if the robots are in distress or at battle at least. Everything between Wall-E and the pinball machines seem to come together now to form one sound- they're all working together. Tones push through the distortion as the electronic robots return as well. It feels as if everything is on this same wave though, all floating across this same path. Everything begins to sound like we're having some great space war with shots fired all around. As we hit the end, there is one last laser blast and then it all is over. - Joshua Macala

(Salt Peanuts) Guro Skumsnes Moe er en av de tøffeste og råeste bassistene man har i Norge, i et land hvor konkurransen er relativt stor når det gjelder tøffe bassister. Hun spiller til daglig i duoen Moe, som reiser land og strand rundt med sin relativt heftige musikk. Denne gangen har hun møtt synthesizer-musikeren Philippe Petit, som har spilt og samarbeidet med en rekke musikere og i en rekke prosjekter med base i Mellom-Europa, og innenfor musikk vi ikke så ofte befatter oss med her på salt peanuts*, nemlig innenfor den mer eksperimentelle, elektroniske musikken. På denne utgivelsen møter vi Skumsnes Moe på den enorme octabassen og el.bassen, samtidig som hun er vokalist, mens Petit trakterer EMS Synthi, som er en analog syntesizer. I tillegg trakterer han platespillere og vokal. Vi får tre improviserte strekk, først «.», deretter en kort «Interlude», før de avslutter med «..». Og det starter nesten overraskende rolig. Men kjenner vi Skumsnes Moe rett, så vil dette utvikle seg etter hvert. I starten «leker» hun seg med spennende behandling av octabassen, hvor vi får såpass dype toner at det rister i hjemmets sammenføyninger, så jeg må dempe musikken en smule. Musikken er fritt improvisert, i alle fall så langt jeg kan fatte det. Og det er Skumsnes Moes bass vi legger mest merke til i åpningssekvensen, hvor den ligger på toppen av relativt «dannet» synthbehandling. Jeg føler dette kunne vært musikk som kunne ledsaget et filmatisk skrekksenario, for det er mye uhygge i det de fremfører. «Interlude» blir et kort mellomspill (på 01:56), før «..» fortsetter i et landskap jeg føler er litt mer «lystig» eller «positivt» og ikke like «skummelt» som første delen. Men her er musikken mer som til en krimfortelling. Synthen kommer mer fram i lydbildet med lange toner som vrenges og vris på og med Skumsnes Moes bass-spill som et slags kommenterende eller tilføyende element. Dette er blitt en spennende utgivelse, hvor to musikere med et felles utgangspunkt har gått sammen om å lage noe det går lang tid mellom hver gang, i alle fall, jeg hører. Det er kreativt, originalt og er den type musikk man helst skal høre i et mørkt kjellerlokale, gjerne i en gammel fabrikk, hvor det kun er hva de to musikerne foretar seg som tar oppmerksomheten. - Jan Granlie

(Sound Projector)The acoustic bass continues to features on the self-titled item (PUBLIC EYESORE PE151) by Guro Skumsnes Moe & Philippe Petit, which features two long pieces by this great Norwegian bass player – who we have heard previously with her duo The Touchables (with Ole-Henrik Moe) and the noise-rock band MoE, where she also shrieks out punkified vocals. On this record, she does play electric bass but also wields the mighty octabass, a 12-foot monster that you have to play with pedals and levers. While it’s possible to say this record also suffers from the “over-long” syndrome mentioned above, it’s made much more tolerable by the powerful vortex effects generated by Moe’s bass. These vibrations pretty much pull us in like a gigantic whirlpool of molten steel, and the journey is made even more intriguing by her occasional vocal interjections, simultaneously eccentric and rather alien. Where Evan Lipson above is struggling in the dark against his bonds and shackles, Guro Skumsnes Moe is happily rewriting the story of “A descent into the maelstrom” by Edgar Allen Poe, and what’s more she’s coming out a winner. Philippe Petit’s additions (EMS Synthi A, turntables, voices) are decorative and all, but I’m gonna have to award the championship belt to the Norwegian, for the sheer effort and imaginative force of her playing. The first track showcases the acoustic versatility, but you unreconstructed rock fans may wanna click onto the third track for long-form electric fuzz bass emanations, purrs and growls.-Ed Pinsent