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Saturday, October 1, 2011

DuH - In Just (Red Toucan, 2011) ****

By Stef

The band's name comes from the origin of the players : Deutschland und Hungary, because drummer Martin Blume and reedist Frank Gratkowski come from Germany, while Szilárd Mezei on viola and Albert Márkos on cello come from Hungary. All four musicians fit well within the European tradition of free improvisation : their abstract sounds color empty silence, while interacting in the moment with each other.

This coloring surpasses what you might expect from the instruments : sounds can be stretched, as is easily done with two string instruments, yet are often limited to short bursts, whispers or phrases that come and go gently, yet all together paint a canvas that is well illustrated by the artwork on the cover, as subtle as pointillism and as dynamic as action painting.

Even if abstract and hermetic at first listen, drop your preconceived notions and natural tendency for pattern recognition : just listen to the sounds and how they organically move forward, shift, intensify, change volume, oscillate, bounce and merge and let yourself be absorbed by the wonderful aesthetic these four musicians create. 

Recommended for listeners with open ears.

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© stef

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