Michel Portal – Dejarme Solo! (1979)

Though hardly deterministic, the links between culture and territory are, understandably, integral to the interpretative repertoire that commonly informs our musical (pre)conceptions, even in the more abstract and individualized realms of creation. At least, that's what came to mind when I first listened to this solo improvisational effort by Michel Portal, in the overdubbed-one-(hu)man-ensemble category, and took it as a companion piece to methodologically similar (and equally admirable) albums (like Westering Home, from 1972) by John Surman (who even partnered with Portal on Alors!!!, appropriately issued by the troublemaking Futura label in 1970): whereas the gentlemen from old Albion delivered somber exercises in insular restlessness, le monsieur de l’Hexagone offered a set brimming with a sunny playfulness that fully embraces mediterranean sonic tomfoolery. Go figure. Of course, many examples of the very opposite could easily be invoked, but lacking that sense of confirmation we can get from certain music emanating from certain locations sounding the way we (more explicitly or implicitly) expect it to, which is a tell-tale sign that, for better or for worse (as an expression of both a valuation of the sociogeographical diversity of musical creation, and of the cultural constraints we can then place on how that localized music should sound like), even for the most receptive listeners, music appreciation is never an even playing field.