Jacques Bailhe’s latest guitar-led composition and arrangement ‘Desirs de La Basque’ is a romantic, instrumental piece that drips with intense, melodic melancholy that makes it an emotive, understated, minimal piece that calls for multiple listens and grabs the attention.
A Los Angeles based musician with a history, Jacques Bailhe has done it all; from touring with Big Lost as a bassist, to producing hundreds of scores for films and commercials, to playing drums behind strippers and chanting Bhuddist prayers in Bangkok, and to giving sitar lessons in Nepal and India. So, obviously, Bailhe knows a thing or two about moving people through sound, and he displays his knowledge adequately through his latest, explosive instrumental, titled ‘Desirs de La Basque’.
Written to express the desires of a French Basque woman, where Bailhe’s father’s family has lived for generations, the piece mostly revolves around a rich, hallowed out, and massive acoustic guitar line that drips with reverb, and a ripping distorted electric that weeps alongside the rich acoustic backing. The piece takes its time to grow, slowly -but surely- building a charming beat that climaxes to a kind of understated, Andalusian rhythm that guides the piece until its graceful conclusion.
With tentative emotions packed into the piece’s minimalistic choice of notes, Jacques Bailhe finds his way to the listener’s hearts with ease. Whether through his delicate finger picking, his thunderous, distorted phrases, or the steady, gradual upheaval of his pace, ‘Desirs de La Basque’ is a sublime instrumental from start to finish.
