Suzan Peeters - Cassotto

We've Able Noise to thank for first bringing Belgian accordionist Suzan Peeters to our attention when they invited her to support at their Cafe OTO show in February of this year. With very few recordings available online at that point, the performance felt like a genuine revelation, Peeters establishing a very physical engagement with her instrument, her feet positioned on a massage board, the vibrations from which were shifting the tones and resonances of the accordion so that it in turn then shifted our understanding of the possibilities of what is ordinarily a fairly trad, unglamorous instrument. It was a cold night, but by the end of the set, Peeters was coated in sweat, visibly exhausted. With Cassotto, her debut album, we now have a document of such transgressions. The term 'cassotto' refers to a small resonating chamber inside the accordion, and feels like the ideal metaphor for capturing Peeters practice - she plays at one, almost as if within that designated chamber, stressing a very unique physical union. You can hear the body within the performance, the sways and waves of movement tied to crackling electronic manipulations of the drones created, at times minimal, others much more vast and expansive. The accordion is most commonly associated with folk, but in Peeters hands it goes elsewhere, reminding me in moments of the more minimal, crackling output of Mika Vainio, Kali Malone's Organ Dirges or a short form version of Ellen Arkbro's Sounds While Waiting. Comparisons aside, the choice of instrument here is key, it's relatively untapped potential in experimental music creating something undeniably singular and engaging. If this is your first time ecnountering Peeters, it's a hell of an introduction. Don't sleep on it.  
 
FFO: Kali Malone, Mika Vainio, Ellen Arkbro