Set adrift on a calm sea, an immense array of possible directions opens up before Kham Meslien on Vévés électriques, his second album following Fantômes… Futurs. With nothing but his double bass and bow as vessel and sextant, a distant journey nonetheless begins to take shape. Vibrations and the striking of strings against wood quickly trace lines and winding paths across the surface of the water—routes to follow before eventually leaving them behind, allowing the outer journey to become an inner voyage as well.

After an improvisation meant to illuminate the way, isolated lands begin to emerge: the shores of Iceland, the landscapes of the Far North, places cut off from the rest of the world by vast expanses of water. Islands battered by a harsh climate, where the only way to withstand it is to draw warmth from deep within oneself. Then the Caribbean arc comes into view. The archipelago, a backdrop to joyful and unsettling experiences, takes Kham back to a childhood from which the passing years have carried him away. Rather than following the conventional pathways of the music of these places, he summons memories whose colours remain vivid, allowing the Caribbean to reveal itself in its own way.

Through the morning mist, Roger Raspail’s percussion locks into the same frequencies of the groove. Double bass and drum skins become companions on a road that crosses paths with Laurent Bardainne’s saxophone. Carrying an oneiric message, David Neerman’s vibraphone also joins the narrative, writing a few chapters of its own, while others are spellbound by Naïssam Jalal’s flute and voice, or struck by the metaphorical rhymes of rapper Rocé.

On the surface, through the themes around which the tracks navigate, landscapes slowly take shape and shift as the shoreline draws closer or recedes. Straying from the marked channel and allowing himself to drift, moving beyond pure acoustic sound to incorporate loops first played and then sampled, Kham sets out to explore the depths. Of the ocean, and of his own soul. He enters a world of improvisation that reveals itself even as he explores it.

Examined up close, emotions become seashells to be gathered and held to the ear, so they can be felt intensely until they take on tangible form. The sea that first appeared so peaceful has become a stage for a succession of stories and images, gradually accumulating to give birth to a larger narrative.

An artist sought after for his singularity, Kham Meslien has shared the stage and collaborated on projects with many of the great names in music, including Robert Plant, Robert Wyatt, Archie Shepp, Richie Havens, Tinariwen, Justin Adams, Vincent Ségal, Erik Truffaz, Anthony Joseph, Magic Malik, Airelle Besson, Naïssam Jalal, Laurent Bardainne, Roger Raspail and David Neerman. These encounters, spanning a wide range of musical horizons, have nurtured a free and open-ended approach, in which the double bass becomes, by turns, substance, rhythm, breath and a space for creation.