Catherine Jauniaux

Music:

Member Since: 8/23/2007
Band Members:

“Jauniaux is an improviser and a composer whose invented languages and uncanny imitations of sounds from the real and unreal world have provoked characterization such as “one-woman-orchestra” and “human sampler” (from the programme of the Kitchen’s Winter Music Series, New York)

“Jauniaux drew from an astonishingly wide palette of vocalism. Working with minimal sounds processing, she incanted a series of sounds and words that spanned the range of musical and emotional color. These utterances ranges from cries of anguish to singsong, and conveyed a primalism that both complemented and contrasted Ikue Mori’s elaborate electronic extensions. Mori’s accompaniment to “the human sampler” was nearly perfect” (Ear Magazine, USA)

“Out-rocker Catherine Jauniaux and No Waver Ikue Mori... Two women interested in compact improvisations with a noted bent towards song-form, two auto-didacts, each with a strong “eastern” inclination, from rock backgrounds... two respective roads full of varied, excited sound-making” (The Wire, UK)

“Catherine Jauniaux führte mit stimmlichem Varianten reichtum und ethnischem Einfuhlungsvermogen internationalen Sprachpluralismus anhand kurtzer Lieder vor." (Jazzthetik, Germany)

“The luxuriant and quasi-cathartical voice of Catherine Jauniaux dialogued with DJ Erik M and brilliantly sculpted sonic scenarios for his deconstructivist processing, in a context which verged on pure ambient abstraction (illbient ?)” (Blitz, Portugal)

”CJ is sublime. Her power draws from the dizzying, unplumbed depths of the psyche. She used to be one of the most singular performers in the Downtown improv scene, which is saying quite a lot. Her vocal parts traverse folk songs, art song, glossolalia and visceral eruptions in the space of measures, beats. Last Friday she floated snatches of minor-key melodies in an unforced, pellucid alto over the muscular understatements of drummer Christine Bard and Marc Ribot’s sensitively strangulated guitar riffs. If anyone understands Jauniaux’s loving caress of a phrase and her need to torture it beyond recognition, it would be Ribot. Jauniaux is always close to her source material, she’s more Brothers Grimm than Ethnomusicology prof. Others (like Shelly Hirsch and Diamanda Galas) have used a sotto voce rushing of air through half articulated syllables to suggest the speaking of the unconscious. But no one has so convincingly summoned the legion of conflicting voices within each of us." (The Village Voice, Aug. 2002)

“The vocalist and inventor of tongues juggles octaves and roles in contrasting duos with Ikue Mori and Tom Cora... The result is both serenade and mutually beneficient violation” (Roulette , USA)

“CJ est une petite souris du dessin animé Fritz The Cat, une souris verte qui courait dans l’herbe... pas aguicheuse, mais pleine de charme... Sur la pointe de la voix, elle nous décoche ses chansons réalistes trans-européennes avant la lettre, puisqu’elles vont du Nord au Sud en passant par la Birmanie et retour. Contes adultes, chansons carton-pâte qu’elle chante du ton édifiant des réclames radiophoniques d’antan, avant de pousser son cri qui tue, celui de la princesse jetée aux oubliettes. Il faut une sacrée dose de travail pour chanter en 78t comme elle le fait. La chanson à l’huile c’est plus beau et plus difficile que la chanson à l’eau de rose” (Le Soir, Belgium)

“CJ est maître dans cet art de se servir de la voix pour restituer des images, ces ambiances, des personnages et des caractères. Bref, du cinéma imaginaire. Avec une aisance surprenante, elle installe des conversations où plusieurs personnages sortent du fond de sa gorge et transporte l’auditoire dans un univers de théâtre japonais." (L’Alsace, France)

Record Label: Unsigned