Spare Parts & The Ideology Toolkit

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Recorded at Audio Cue Tonlabor, Berlin October 23rd 2004
Computer – Gilles Aubry
Percussion – Nicolas Field

“”It’s a cute story, that Gilles Aubry and Nicholas Field met as they inadvertently made moves on the same woman, the circumstances of their meeting serving as the inspiration for the name of the duo they would later form. Girls are often blamed for the breakups of bands, but whether either of Aubry or Field were successful in their wooing that night, their romantic endeavors certainly sparked a relationship of a rather different nature. Both expatriates (Aubry is Swiss, living in Berlin, Field is British by birth, now a resident of Amsterdam) with an interest in improvised music, the pair belied their chance meeting into a musical coupling that’s since resulted in two releases and tours within continental Europe. Spare Parts and the Ideology Toolkit, the second of these releases, pairs Aubry’s computer with Field’s percussion in a series of improvised tête-à-têtes , with a smaller set of field recordings provided as interludes of a distinctly non-pacific nature. Aubry makes apoint to mention that, on this album, his computer was played through guitar and bass amps, a distinction that may seem trivial, but one that is likely more meaningful to The Same Girl’s sound that it first appears. The challenge of bringing together the computer and percussion is one of equalizing their output, not simply in a sense of volume, but also the quality and character of sound. His particular use of amplification offers Aubry’s output a physical presence that is more textural than that of a conveniently amplified computer, an important component of the way The Same Girl operate. Field’s percussion, even when at a busy clatter, never overpowers Aubry’s computer, and there’s an impressive synergy to their sound. The duo is consistently responsive, and while the constraints of the more ready-made components of Aubry’s instrumentation may not allow for a wholly free-flowing conversation, there is a clear sense of interplay within the music. It’s tempting to paint The Same Girlas an organic/inorganic combo, but to focus on the dichotomy of the duo’s instrumentation is to put the spotlight on a separation that remains only a small part of Spare Parts and the Ideology Toolkit’s appeal. Aubry and Field don’t pit their instruments against each other; instead they strive for a more harmonious interaction. Aubry, especially, uses a diverse selection of sounds, but it’s impressive how well he and Field can find complimentary territory, and how fluidly the two, given their instrumentation, are able to play off of one another. It’s amusing to think that this project spawned from the intersection of concurrent seduction attempts, since though neither Aubry and Field may have gotten the girl, they each met someone special that night, and the subsequent relationship has likely been more fruitful than any they might have entered with said female.”-fakejazz.info”