(Just Outside) A strong recording from Pascal Battus (guitar pickups) and Benjamin Duboc (double bass). Without know precisely what sort of sounds Battus was likely to elicit from that particular source, I already liked the idea of any (presumably) shrill and whiny electronics in tandem with a deeply sounded bass, which turns out to be what occurs here a good portion of the time. Duboc uses the bow quite often, usually in the quieter, darker reaches of his instrument (though quite forcefully) while Battus extracts a wide range of higher, drier, screechier, squelchier sounds from his mere pickup; hard to imagine that this was the sole source, in fact. Be that as it may, the single track, running about 52 minutes, breathes very well, moves from its somberness on occasion, is smooth and humming here, awkward and tumbling there, including intimations of traditional rhythm and melody, but just the faintest tinge. The more agitated portions don't sound overbearing; there's always a sense of listening and consideration for placement, even then where many would be sawing away without regard for anything but their projection. Here, when this arco display occurs, it's marvelous on its own and is then brilliantly enhanced by a slowly emerging, grinding, metallic scrim from Battus; the point of intersection between these two sounds is extremely delicious. It meanders a bit much, maybe, about 2/3 of the way through, but overall a tough, gritty performance, featuring unusual sonics, well achieved and worth checking out. - Brian Olewnick

(Centipede Farm) What we’ve got here is a single 52-minute track of live-in-the-studio improvisation, consistent with the overall Eh? aesthetic of artistic anti-music in simple packaging. The sleeve lists two performers, Pascal Battus on guitar pickups and Benjamin Duboc on double bass. I don’t have any idea what Mr. Battus is doing to those guitar pickups, let alone have I ever before heard of guitar pickups by themselves used as an instrument, but there’s long stretches of this where I don’t hear any sounds I could identify as any known instrument, let alone a double bass, even factoring out the passages where that instrument is used in a percussive capacity. In fact, for the first minute or so about all that can be heard is some faint crackling. In fact, there are a lot of very quiet parts, so perhaps a sort of minimalist bent to what Un Nu are doing here. At times I hear tinkery percussive sounds like some kind of metal tools, as if I’ve just wandered into someone’s workshop where they’re quietly hard at work on something. Other times there’s a a soothing backdrop of some kind of very quiet feedback-like sounds, and just as it’s beginning to get lulling, a loud electrified POP or THUNK jumps out and startles me, I can almost see sparks flying from some piece of electrical equipment. This is just one way the performers take maximum advantage of volume contrasts, and they dramatically shift the mood several times during this piece even as they seem to be building with a pretty tight set of micro-motifs. There are some intense periods of drony bowing from the bass that get pretty rocking. At around 24 minutes in there’s a whole part that sounds like a motorcycle gang taking off; by the 30 minute mark it’s gone silent but for the faint noise floor of an amplifier. It takes a certain talent to pull off doing this kind of atonal improvisation and be able to keep it engaging for almost an hour. Adventurous ears will have a ball with this, but of course if you’re familiar with Public Eyesore and Eh? you probably already figured as much. And if you’re not, this is a fine place to get introduced. - Chuck Hoffman

(Vital Weekly) A duo disc of Pascal Battus, who plays guitar pickups here, and one Benjamin Duboc who plays double bass. Recordings took place on December 2nd 2010 in France and are now released. I am not sure to what extend things have been edited or mixed, or wether this is a straight forward release of whatever was recorded that day (in one go?). Its music that is improvised, obviously one would almost say, but even when cut into one track has distinct pieces throughout, each with their own character. Sometimes noisy, with some kind of feedback like manner, but then to be followed by something that is almost inaudible, with the double played being hit occasionally and the guitar played with a bow. Another segment cis then altogether very rhythmical with the two of them hitting the strings fiercely. This makes this improvised music of the highest level, where players have complete control over their instrument and know every trick in the book to play their instruments in any conventional and unconventional manner. Much of their playing makes the instruments sound like a guitar and double bass, but occasionally they treat them like acoustic boxes to generate new sounds. Highly minimal playing with maximum output. Excellent disc. - Frans De Waard

(Aiding and Abetting) Guitar and bass taken to their illogical extremes. Pascal Battus and Banjamin Duboc play at the far reaches of sound and music. This is not entirely comprehensible, but I'd say that's part of the point. Ride the rumble and see where you go. - Jon Worley

(Kathodik) Un'impressionante vertigine impro. Cupa e descrittiva. I parigini Pascal Battus e Benjamin Duboc (pick up di chitarra e contrabbasso), letteralmente stupiscono, producendosi in un'unica lunga composizione, che nell'arco di oltre cinquanta minuti, offre una serie di scarne e traforanti figure, di minacciosa elettroacustica d'ascendenza jazz. Minimale, scricchiolante e performativa. Taglienti sinewaves, dronanti ambientazioni, circuiti gracchianti ed intrusioni, di statico pulviscolo. Con piglio deciso ed intesa automatica, di sottrazione, non di stratificazione. Di corde aggredite e surreali, improvvise contrazioni. Gonfia di frequenze basse e letteralmente dentro, il corpo/strumento. Rilucente, nella sua febbrile urgenza. Implosioni di casse acustiche e monotone ripetizioni, che a sentirci La Monte Young o Tony Conrad, non è certo affar del caso. Con la polvere che s'attacca alla gola, d'umidità esposta. Di silenzio e malinconico rattrappimento. Di nulla e microfoni a contatto. Una foto di Mingus ed una dei This Heat, a sgocciolar appese alla parete. - Marco Carcasi

(Chain D.L.K.) I could find almost nothing on this duo other than that it consists of Pascal Battus on Guitar Pickups and Benjamin Duboc on Double Bass. According to his website, Battus co-invented Sound Massage, in which one sits close while he plays a set of objects, creating a mini-concert for the listener. No, it doesn't seem related to the new age practice of putting singing bowls on you at the beach, although I'm sure this may give him some ideas. For Duboc's part, his website states, 'Benjamin has a beautiful and big sound, you really feel the ground while hearing him... it's somethin'!' With this in mind, you may have a sense of what you're in for. This is pretty interesting experimental improvisation. It isn't really noise, but it is certainly noisy. The crackling and feedback work well with the double bass rumbles. At times it is amazing to think that all of this is coming from only two people, but for the most part this is pretty stripped down, making good use of quiet spaces and ambience. Duboc in particular seems skilled in getting the most out of his instrument, using it in seemingly unconventional ways (as if using just the guitar pickups were conventional in itself!). This album weighs in at 52:38. - Eskaton

(Sound Projector) UN NU is the team of Pascal Battus and Benjamin Duboc, and their Recoupements (EH?63) was recorded in 2010 at a performance space in Albi in the middle of the Pyrenees. Battus has wowed listeners before with his radical “rotating surfaces” method by which he produces slow and grindy sound-art, and his 2010 Ichnites (a collab with Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour) was a “classic” of that genre. No surprise to learn Battus has been seen grinding his axe with that other primo scrapey fellow, Alfredo Costa Monteiro, for a goodly number of years. For Recoupements, he’s working only with guitar pickups, probably using them as a low-grade electronic instrument to generate the intensely irritating background squeal that permeates most of the length of this 52-minute endurance test; when he’s given the chance to “take a solo”, you won’t believe the obnoxious results nor the shrill, inhuman nastiness that Battus is capable of. Duboc meanwhile veers between attempting to play some simple tunes on his bass – free-form bowing to create simple two-note patterns, as if expecting Cecil Taylor to arrive and rescue the session – and making boxed-in clattering noises that are slightly more suited to the austere sound-art nature of the gig. As an album this has some great moments, but I sense the duo keep running out of steam every ten minutes, and the pauses in between ideas are a little bit awkward. But I’m a sucker for minimal improv when the noises produced are as deliciously abrasive, introverted and unfriendly as this. - Ed Pinsent