French vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Delphine Dora has accumulated an ample body of work since the middle of last decade. Dominique Dépret aka Mocke Depret is a French-born Brussels-based guitarist with credits including membership in Holden and Midget!, collaborations with Flanger and Laetitia Sadier, plus solo work. Together they are Delphine Dora & Mocke, and their Le Corps defendant lands betwixt experimentalism and avant-pop. It’s the eleventh release from the Belgian label Okraïna, like all the imprint’s output issued on 10-inch vinyl, in this case a double set, and like the rest featuring attractive sleeve artwork by Gwénola Carrère.
On Le Corps defendant, Delphine Dora is credited with voice, piano, prepared piano, keyboards, celesta, glockenspiel, piano and guitar strings, violin, shruti box, field recordings, and objects. Mocke just plays the guitar, and yet there is a creative equality in the results that registers as quite natural, perhaps because the contents evolved over the course of three years.
Much of the music’s strength comes from the richness of Dora’s voice, which is layered numerous times in opener “Les Miroirs conversent avec les etoiles en silence,” spanning from a whisper to conversation to distant singing. Instrumentally, Mocke’s guitar lends the piece much of its structure, while Dora provides abstract counterpoint on piano.
Not knowing French lends an aura of mystery to Le Corps defendant, but a measure of clarity arises through learning that the first track’s title translates to English as “Mirrors converse with silent stars.” Overall, this collab can be aptly described as possessing an avant sensibility, but the atmosphere is never harsh, and the second selection “L’Illusion s’etrangle” brings the rich history of French pop song to mind.
This is achieved through Dora’s exquisite singing and piano, but Mocke’s quiet accents add a subtle and welcome touch of the unusual. The gentleness and ease of tone extends into “Pedro m’inquiete,” an instrumental pairing Mocke’s carefully unfolding string progression with superb, at times almost harp-like note cascades from Dora, with the avant-pop angle significantly intensified.
“Est-ce le prix de la nuitée?” is a showcase for Mocke’s sheer range, moving from café-appropriate warmth to tougher cyclical motion and a pricklier brief improv-esque passage, Dora’s input on piano and voice attentive to her partner’s developments (and vice versa). Using only layered guitar and vocals, “Le service abstrait” is still a full-bodied affair, with a substantial jump in intensity (attained via feedback and repetition of speech) roughly halfway through.
“Oû est Joseph?” reinforces a tendency for mid-song redirection, beginning in a tranquil, if increasingly surreal, place only to shift gears into a pulsing, post-rock zone, but the lengthier “Des nôtres” makes its appealingly soundtrack-like adjustments more gradually. It leads to one of Le Corps defendant’s standouts, “Les Insulaires” beginning with a crisply pretty combo of piano, guitar, and voice, akin to something overheard in a drawing-room, and then deftly segueing into a short bit of Minimalist-derived glistening before moving into a closing stretch of avant-pop.
The employment of repetition and cyclical figures, elevated technique, and a focus on art-song entertains the possibly that this set might appeal to fans of Recommended Records. The possibility is heightened by “Un Triple Cercle,” though Mocke’s swells of electricity also briefly brought Sarah Lipstate (she of Noveller) to mind.
But “Pluton s’éloigne,” Le Corps defendant’s longest piece, is highly reminiscent of Euro free improv, and the comparatively succinct title track is an almost collage-like unraveling of the surreal. After a sweet guitar loop, “Agua por favor” retains this collage approach, though maybe it’s better tagged as abstract drift. “L’Absent était parmi nous” starts out as a duet for piano and guitar (but with an intriguing clicking in the background), and with the entry of Dora’s wordless vocals it coheres into an exceptional finale.
This is the latest from Okraïna in a trim but diverse catalog. An Idea in Everything by David Greenberger, Chris Corsano, and Glenn Jones has been covered in this space, but there are also discs by Ed Sanders, Rev Galen, Ed Askew in collab with Joshua Burkett, and Steve Gunn, and Folk Songs Cycle, which pairs Delphine Dora with Eloïse Decazes of Arlt as they tackle a cycle of trad songs arranged by composer Luciano Berio for his wife, the singer Cathy Berberian. I’m eager to check that one out, but right now Le Corps defendant is doing a satisfactory job of satisfying my desire for progressive soundmaking.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
