The Grand Sbam, a bastard music ensemble, embarks with ‘Furvent’ on a new journey in octet, to meet the wind and the natural elements, inspired by A. Damasio’s novel: The horde of the counterwind and by the symbolism of the Yi King (I Ching).

Carved in the continuous flow of sound, the music of the ensemble is a de-fluence, a circumvention, an inflection of air and time. An impetuous flow of sound defying musical boundaries. Nowhere between rock, contemporary music, ancient music, jazz, electroacoustics, it draws sharp lines and curves on the back of our disintegrating present.

“A band with variable geometry.”

What’s the concept behind the Le Grand Sbam ensemble?

Guilhem Meier: Le Grand Sbam is elaborated to make the mind busy, and make the spirit free. It is a band with variable geometry. Each repertoire brings together different musicians from a common base. It can be an orchestra with 15 musicians including cello, violin, harpsichord (‘Trou de Ver’), or power rock ensemble (‘Vaisseau Monde’), a contemporary weirdo combo (‘Furvent’).

‘Furvent’ is the name of your latest album. Can you share some further details about how it was recorded?

We recorded all together with many mics (a lot of SM57) at Improve Tone studio in France, and the man who recorded us was very kind but unfortunately we scared him, I don’t really know why. It was in January 2020 just before the world start running crazy, well it was already mad.

<a href="https://legrandsbam.bandcamp.com/album/furvent">Furvent by Le Grand Sbam</a>

How pleased are you with the sound of the album?

Very satisfied. Our magic mixman R3my Boy was here and he understand our music totally. He’s actually the one who “saved” the past album ‘Vaisseau Monde’, it was buried for a while at the bottom of hard disks, he mixed it by chance and did a fantastic job. We naturally asked him to work on ‘Furvent’. A big challenge because of the pretty unusual instrumentarium and the mix of acoustic and electric instruments.

Would you agree that the album is continuation of ‘Vaisseau Monde’? What are some of the differences?

The differences are there’s new musicians in the band (and we’ve been changing a lot, we’re not the same as 7 years ago when the music of ‘Vaisseau Monde’ was first written and played). In ‘Furvent’, we invited a cimbalom player and another keyboards and Rhodes player, the percussion player changed as well. ‘Vaisseau Monde’ was our first experience to mix electronic stuff, written and improvised music, like a teenage dream. ‘Furvent’ is the album of maturity, haha!

“It explores the multiple and hybrid possibilities of a singular instrumental ensemble”

How would you describe your sound?

Many strings ripping many voices running away inside effect pedals, with drums trying to crush everyone. It’s powerful and delicate, virtuoso and sensitive, ‘Furvent”s music, composed by Guilhem Meier and Antoine Arnera, is nourished by contrast, developing a furious madness charged with symbols and poetry. It explores the multiple and hybrid possibilities of a singular instrumental ensemble with generous tones, mixing electric and acoustic sounds.

How are you coping with the current pandemic and what are your predictions for the future? Do you think the music industry will adapt to it?

Yes, I’m sure the music industry will always find solutions to make money, but I’m not sure how musicians can continue to live from their music if they can’t play live. We had a lot of concerts and tour cancelled in 2020 but try to keep the energy and strength to work on new materials for our different projects. And to be honest, we are pretty lucky as musicians in France compared to many other countries.

Are any of you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?

Yes, we’ve all have many other bands, projects, solo…

Most of us are involved in the label/collective Dur et Doux, l’Abeille Beugle and Pince Oreille collectives. Among other you should check PinioL, PoiL, Lfant, Gwyn Wurst, Pili Coït, Watchdog, Blast, Icsis…

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

My favourite albums would include ‘The Rite of Spring’ by Igor Stravinsky, ‘My Favorite Things’ by John Coltrane, ‘Disco Volante’ by Mr Bungle, ‘In Utero’ by Nirvana, ‘Requiem’ by Michel Chion, ‘Musique Des Tsiganes De Roumanie’ by Taraf de Haïdouks and so many more!!

This are three recent; ‘Practice Chanter‘ by Léonore Boulanger, ‘New Games‘ by Goat, ‘Interventions‘ by Horse Lords.