Guitar - Duos (Part 2): Spontaneous decisions and sinuous backdrops

By Paul Acquaro

Part two in the series of recent guitar duos, before we move onto trios. We begin today with a couple of actual guitar duos and continue from there ...

Rubén Reinaldo & Kely García Guitarra Jazz Dúo - Acuarel (Free Code Jazz Records, 2020) ****

Guitar and Guitar. I've confessed before about my reverence for the guitar duo - and by this I mean simply two guitars playing together. To my simple ears, the musical ground that a pair of guitarists, attuned to their instruments and in tune with each other, is boundless. A sensitive pair can switch from quiet introspection to explosive outpouring effortlessly, leading the listener almost anywhere. The duo of Rubén Reinaldo & Kely García, two accomplished guitarists and educators from the Galician region of Spain, are exemplars of this configuration. Hailing from different generations, the younger Reinaldo and the established Garcia find much common ground in navigating the tunes of Acuarel. With nods to tradition, both musically and culturally, the two weave fluid melodic lines through rich harmonic passages, filling the musical space generously but still leaving plenty of room to not drown the listener. A wonderful example is the track 'Coscovals' - a modern jazz melody pings off a lilting comp, bright, light, but with a depth that invites the listener to dive deep. The title track is rhythmically alluring piece featuring an intricate interlocking melody. The final track, 'Berimar Blues' takes the album out in a blues-tinted flourish.

The duo reminds me, in some ways, of some of the exemplary guitar collaborations festooning my collection - like Bill Frisell and Dale Bruning, or Joe Pass and Herb Ellis, or - one of my evergreens - Vic Juris and Bireli Lagrene (not actually a duo, but good enough), or even Julian Lage and Nels Cline - no, none of these are truly comparable, but they all demonstrate compatibility, tunefulness, and selflessness. Added bonus: for the guitar players out there, the recording (even the download) comes with a book of transcriptions.

Ivar Grydeland & Henry Kaiser - In The Arctic Dreamtime (Rune Grammofon, 2020) ****½

Guitar and Guitar. Apparently the product of a spontaneous decision to record, American guitarist (and arctic explorer) Henry Kaiser met up with Norwegian guitarist Ivar Grydeland in Oslo and made a soundtrack to the documentary Ellsworths flyveekspedition 1925, an early silent film about arctic explorer Roald Amundsen’s second attempt to reach the North Pole. Less than two hours after starting, they were done, notably more successful than Amundsen in fulfilling their mission. 

 

The opening track already signals that it will be an atmospheric journey, 'Roald Amundsen 1925' opens with an evocative drone and blips of electric guitar. Over a sinuous backdrop, melodic intentions build, reaching a searing altitude around half way trough the 17+ minute track. Projected against bleakness, the guitar's distorted buzz is electrifying and lonely, it feels very much like we're soaring over a endless cracked icy white landscape, listening to the fears in our heads. It is, in a sense, frighteningly gorgeous. The track 'Spitsbergen' is different, arpeggios with a touch of blues, a little Morricone, and a little bit of the musical language from Grydeland's group Huntsville. It feels open ended, somewhat jagged, and tempting. Each track seems to capture a similar mood just a little differently, 'To the North Pole' seems a bit hopeful, 'N-25' a bit forlorn, and Into the Arctic Dreamtime, somewhat terrifying. Quite an evocative recording!

Csaba Palotai, Steve Argüelles - Cabane Perchée (BMC, 2021) ***½

Guitar and Percussion. This recording, from a Hungarian guitarist Csaba Palotai and British drummer Steve Argüelles was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. The two musicians, collaborators living in France, have certainly built their Cabane Perchée - tree house, or as DeepL will have it, 'perched cabin' on some strong branches of rhythm and repetition. Through the crisp, lively recording comes clear, developed ideas that build-up thir energy through circular motifs and strong grooves. 'Bulgarian Rhythm 1' opens the album with a swiftly moving cluster of chords and bare bones percussion accompaniment. The full sound is somewhat surprising given the instrumentation, but it is no exception, as the second track 'Phosphore' shows. Again a repetitive figure from the guitar and a laser focused set of percussive devices keeps the music lively and when Palotai breaks up the figure with short melodic runs the contrast is alluring. However, just as soon as one thinks there is a pattern forming, 'In Tents', the third track, shakes things up. Argüelles plays a prepared acoustic guitar, giving Palotai's acoustic guitar a much different rhythmic base to build on, which he does with slowly expanding chordal voicings, ending with an emotive solo passage. A very nice, composed, acoustic recording.

Álvaro Domene & Killick Hinds - Hocket Pulsar (Iluso, 2021) ***½

Guitar and String Instruments (and some electronics). According to the liner notes, it was Henry Kaiser who introduced the Georgia (USA) based Killick Hinds and New York based Álvaro Domene based on a feeling that they were musically compatible. His hunch proved correct as the duo quickly set forth to create Hocket Pulsar. On first listen, one could be forgiven thinking there is a glitch in their Bluetooth speaker connection. The opening title track is a long, patient expansion of sound. There are glitchy pops and fizzes of electronics over a drone for half of the track, while a more traditional electric guitar appears now and then in the mix. As the track evolves, the guitar takes over with rhythmic plucking of the lower strings and other elongated tones. It takes patience, but the effect is a rewarding experience. The next track 'Voces Magicae' offers a contrast, less electronic sounds and more percussive used of stringed instruments provide the setting. The other guitar strikes a minimalist melody, for a bit, until it becomes goopier both acoustically and electronically. 'Kinesis in Unlimited Dimensions' explores other sounds, growls from the guitar mesh with digital spouts, while 'Meditation on Mediation' takes a quieter but still very active approach, seemingly processing the sounds of the guitar other instruments into an effective blend. Overall a successfully experimental mélange of acoustic/electronic/digital sounds.

Lars Larsson and Gunnar Backman - A Love Supreme (Simlas, 2021) ***½

Guitar and Saxophone. Before we veer out of the electronics, let's talk about (virtual) guitarist Gunnar Brakeman and saxophonist Lars Larsson's A Love Supreme. I suspect naming a recording as such could quickly set up opposing sides: there will be those who hear the music through the lens of John Coltrane and only hear it in comparison to the original, and others who hear the music filtered through the influence of the original. It is best to do the latter here, and in fact, one could be tempted to do the same with Backman's instrument. He pays the virtual fretted guitar, which I would be hard pressed to describe except that the duo used Abelton Live to create an actual musical environment that sounds more like a full band than a duo. The opening track, 'Acknowledgement' evolves into a thick groove with a shredding virtual guitar, which is where the second track 'Resolution' also goes. It seems like Larsson's role is often to provide a connection to the original, whereas Backman takes us deep into a sonic epiphany. There is a lot of incidental sound as well, misty shrouds wafting through underground tech-dystopias, like on the intro 'Pursuance.' In the middle of the track, after a long attractively abrasive guitar heavy sound collage, the saxophonist takes a lengthy, melodic solo, his tone refined. The wisdom of calling your album 'A Love Supreme' is debatable, but the concept employed here, seeing each movement of the original as a stand alone piece to then reshape acknowledges the sincere indebtedness the world has to Coltrane's masterwork, as well its enduring malleability as a source of inspiration.

Chris Alford & Justin Peake - Turning On Our Own Time (2021) ****

Guitar and Bass. The duo of New Orleans based guitarist Chris Alford and bassist Justin Peake have created an excellent free-jazz/folk recording that pulls the listener deep into a place where the surreal feels visceral. Cleanly plucked notes and lingering reverberation of strings stand on equal footing as the two instruments converse. Bursts of ideas follow long expositions, and as busy as it may get, the two never get in each others way. The opener 'Mullerian Mimicry' features a pointy, abstract melody led by the guitar and supported by an insistent bassline that adds percussive elements and counter melodies. The title track takes a more atmospheric turn, the reverb is turned up and the echoing instruments cast a chanting-like pallor over the track. "Ancestral Murmurs' goes even deeper into reverie, this time with less echo, but with similar determination. 'A Course in Water' is a flowing solo finger-picked chord melody and 'Issaquena' features a somewhat indistinct bass thrumming overlaid by a lightly picked single note melody that dips generously into American folk. 'Turning On Own Own Time' is a spare, but generous album that over the course of 14 tracks stays fresh and engaging.

Ross Hammond and ... (s/r, 2020 - 2021) ****

Guitar and Drums, Vocals, Table. At the start of the pandemic California based, Kentucky born, guitarist Ross Hammond released a couple of EPs on his Bandcamp page. They were a diverse lot, an engagement with drummers' Mike Pride and Calvin Weston, one with vocalist Jay Nair, and another with tabla player Sameer Gupta. A strong connecting theme across these diverse duos is Hammond's deep plunge into Appalachian, blues, folk and the hard to describe but you-know-it-when-you-hear-it twang of Americana.  

 

Earth Music, his duo with Mike Pride, begins with a gentle finger picked melody claw-hammer style on the banjo over a solid pulsating drum beat. 'Waiting' drinks deep the country blues, and 'Walking Through' features Hammond's slide playing over a folksy, earthy drone. On Root, with Calvin Weston, Hammond strikes out with a more forceful blues on his slide guitar, employing a lowered tuning to get some gut grabbing tones. 'Snakeline' is swampy and mysterious, while 'Blue Eye' is bright and nearly pop music in comparison! Weston's drumming is groove based, giving Hammond propulsion. 

 

With table player Sameer Gupta on Live at Gold Lion Arts, Hammond's playing is lighter and a touch more open ended. On the beautiful opener 'Misdirection,' Hammond plays open chords, with gentle, bright leading tones weaving around the sound of Gupta's gulping percussion. 'Gone National' must refer to the National Steel guitar, as the sound is different, more muffled and metallic, than the previous track. Here Gupta's rhythmic prowess is a main feature. The tabla and acoustic guitar combination feels timeless and this is expressed nowhere better than on the hopeful sounds of the last track 'Happily Outnumbered.' The final collaboration with vocalist Jay Nair, Hope (a full length album), adds a entirely new dimension to Hammond's work. Dark and expectant, the opening track 'Mother of Compassion' finds a deep and ready connection between Indian musical stylings (the labels Carnatic and Hindustani come from the Bandcamp page) and American blues/folk. The track 'Ocean of Bliss' feels like it pulls to closer to American folk side with open and hopeful sounding chord-melody. Nair's complex melody graces the outlines of Hammond's guitar work elegantly.

Kevin Kastning & Mark Wingfield - Rubicon I (Greydisc, 2021) **** 

Guitar and Guitar (and a little Piano). The album came with the following genre labels: Jazz, New Age, Ambient, Avant-garde, Progressive rock. Rubicon I, the 9th album of the duo of guitarists Kevin Kastning and Mark Wingfield fits - but never entirely - under all of these labels. Throughout the tracks, there is a gradual accumulation of intent and tension as layers of foundational ambiance build, while injections of clean, incisive lines of electric guitar cut and the buzz of acoustic guitar strings add texture. There are also the unusual timbres and tones to consider, as Kastning uses his self-invented 36-string Double Contraguitar and a 17-string Hybrid Extended classical guitar to contrast against Wingfield's electric guitar and live-electronics. Together the two cover a wide swath of sonic territory that is sometimes familiar, sometimes treacherous (listen to the intro of 'Comoving Distance,' imagine yourself lost and floating between perceptual dimensions, it could get potentially pretty bewildering, no?) and generally fascinating. The tracks are very textural and fraught with possibilities - it seems at any moment something may develop. On 'Dynamic Horizon' an electronic ring can be heard throughout the track, while Kastning switches to the piano and provides a sparse melodic framework that Wingfield soars around with a frazzled guitar tone. 'The Lensing' continues with Kastning's piano and works off a somewhat more traditional musical interaction - Kastning provides deliberative melodic statements and punctuating chords to Wingfield's swooshing lines. The album ends with the 20 minute 'Particle Horizon', which finds Kastning back on guitar, likely the 36 string one. The track begins with atmospheric fill and a clean toned, staggered melody and expands patiently, layering in new sounds, but still keeping a threads of ideas stretching to a climatic moment three-quarters of the way through.

Kevin Kastning & Soheil Peyghambari -- The First Realm (Greydisc, 2021) ***½

Guitar and Bb & Bass Clarinet. My two favorite instruments: guitar and bass clarinet. Maine based guitarist Kevin Kastning's is paired up here with Iran/France based Soheil Peyghambari on their first recorded collaboration The First Realm. Like the previous album, it features Kastning on an assortment of unusual guitars that he has invented, which extend the standard range of the instrument in multiple directions. Peyghambari's clarinet meanwhile adds its own expressive range to the mix. Opening track 'Sleep Memory Walking' starts off in the lower registers of one of Kastning's extended guitars, shortly thereafter joined by soft, low tones from Peyghambari. The two engage deliberately and offer gently unfolding counter melodies, extending each other's melodic ideas. The next track 'As stranded declination tendrils' plays out differently. Kastning creates an ephemeral atmosphere for Peyghambari, who adds tentative, short flowing passages. Each of the tracks evolve with their own unique approaches, for example the closing track 'Perduring toward obsidian transferal' offers moments where the guitar provides a moving base-line low-end (I'd write bassline, but it would not be quite correct) under wisps of Bb clarinet, while the track 'Beside shadows calling forward' is grounded by harp-like arpeggios for the clarinetist to react to. The general mood is subdued and dreamlike, the dynamics are hushed and little changes make for big differences.

Aron Namenwirth & Eric Plaks - Shape Storm (Culture of Waste, 2020) ***½

Guitar and Piano. Aron Namenwirth is a Brooklyn based guitarist who seems to be getting more active lately - he's a part of the group Playfield with Daniel Carter, which has released two recordings on the label Orbit577 and he has released a few albums under his own aegis via Bandcamp. This duo recording from 2020 is a grower. Namenwirth uses a slightly effected sound, I am assuming a wah-wah peddle, to add a bit of texture to his otherwise clean tone. The approach adds extra propulsion to the interactions with the piano - it is slightly goopy sounding, and when applied to repetitive motifs, offers a contrast to the more precise melodic lines. The tightness between Namenwirth and pianist Eric Plaks reveal a long developed musical relationship, they are able to compliment, anticipate, and react to each other seemingly effortlessly. This is a nice duo setting, the two are on equal standing, and as Plaks at times takes the reigns and moves the improvisation into more frenetic territory, Namenwirth kicks in bit of crunch. The track 'Feedback Square' is a great example of this, while a track like 'Seven Sides' indeed shows a more textural and exploratory side of Namenwirth's playing. 

 

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Ivo Perelman/Pascal Marzan - Dust of Light / Ears Drawings Sounds (Setola di Maiale/ Ibeji, 2020) ****

By Sammy Stein

I have written with Ivo Perelman for a while now and one thing I know about him is his love for the guitar - all its sounds, intricacies and variations. Ivo studied nylon string guitar early in his career and it is no surprise that he has been working with 3 guitarists on new CDs. The first I am reviewing is 'Dust Of LIght/Ears Drawing Sound' which is the result of a coincidental meeting between French guitarist Pascal Marzan and Perelman.

In a remarkable mirroring of lives Marzan learned and mastered classical acoustic guitar later in life and studied under the same Brazilian composer - Heitor Villa- Lobos who tutored Ivo on the instrument when he was a young musician.

Marzan worked with legendary British improvisers including guitarist John Russell, violinist Phil Wachsmann and clarinet player Alex Ward, as well as playing classical music. He decided recently to completely overhaul his repertoire and playing and bought a new ten strings classical guitar built to the requirements of the legendary virtuoso Narciso Yepes. He then tuned each string with an interval of a third of a tone from the next string in order to develop microtonality. It is not surprising that Ivo was captured by this idea as one of his musical collaborators, Mat Maneri, who learned the microtonal philosophy from his father, Joe Maneri. The Maneri's sound was captured on a couple of recordings for ECM.

When Pascal and Perelman met at a London gig and there was instant connection. Pascal's tuning meant that he can play in sixths of tones due to the one and a half tone spacing of the guitar frets whilst two different scales of thirds of tones as well as “normal” notes still being available. The complexity is astounding but simplified in the hands of a true virtuoso.

There are 12 tracks here and each one displays a little of the intimate relationship between the instruments and players. In 'Hot Dust-Obscured Galleries' Perelman has to play at times so pianissimo and even then the listener finds themselves straining to catch the whispered intonations of the guitar, whilst in 'River Mirroring A Smiling Moon' there is a playfulness from both instruments and the guitar occasionally rises into the pauses left by the sax - those important but brief pauses.

'Bees And Squirrels In The Garden/Two Bees At My Window' is busy, buzzy and energy driven, the two instruments cascading and rising in harmony before diverging, creating a sense of coming and going, hovering and flying, like the mating dance of butterflies or bees. Perelman's altissimo creates an uncanny bee-like sound with the thrumming guitar sounding remarkably hive-like. 'Sun Through Closed Eyelids' is mellifluous, flowing and coloured with a sense of lightness, with a lovely descent part way through which evolves naturally on both sides. 'Ears Drawing Sound' is short and explorative, whilst 'Dusts Of Light/Dancing In Shadowed Forests' and 'Swinging Swallows' are apposite mood swings with the latter somehow distilling down to a narrow trench of musical variation on both sides - again, completely unplanned - it just happens but the bandwidth of notes is narrow, the intricacies wide. 'Conversation In The Wind/Conversation With The Wind is lower, darker and rooted in those dark corners we sometimes find and open, thoughts disparate and flickering into view - the listener gets glimpses of ideas before they vanish like whirls of mist, batted out of existence by a sudden flicker of aggression form the sax.

'Calling At The Doorway' is lighter, high and sweet whilst 'High Mountain Walk' is powerful, atmospheric and travels different musical pathways. There is a touch of Sharrock, a touch of Ayler in the players respectively and it works well as the conversation goes from competing to harmony on the spin of a note.

'Reflections' is a lot of pipe work from Perelman over light guitar and 'Mysterious Bells' closes out the album in a blaze of intuitive playing from both players.

Responding to the intricacy shown on the guitar, Perelman challenges his own playing by entering in micro tones above or below the guitar 'pure' notes which involves meticulous adjustment of his reed, mouthpiece, embouchure and air flow. Just occasionally there is a microtone of difference which catches on the ear as it is so difficult to place but this is rare. Perhaps hardest for Perelman on this recording is the fact that to enhance the guitar, he has to play dulce, softly and quietly at times in order to allow the microtonality of the guitar intervals to be heard and felt.

At times the two instruments appear to converge so that there is a sense of a chimera, a hybrid and perhaps a re-birth, if that was possible, of Perleman's playing.

There are moments of eerie reverberation which reveals the frail nature of the Spanish guitar wood in the guitar's frame, comprising as is does of small pieces of wood held together. Pascal brings from the guitar a life-like change of mood, veering from effervescence to gentle, sensual strokes and touches using hands, nails. He also creates wildly rampant arpeggios. The sensuality and engagement derived from the guitar means Perelman has to commit to utter control of his sax, something which is always a facet of his playing but here in the soft intricacies, it is a vulnerability which would lay bare any tiny deviation from perfection. Perelman rises to the challenge admirably and delivers yet another factor of his playing. There are nods to historical styles of Ayler and Webster but also a modernistic approach to delivery which is appealing to a wide section of listeners.

This is a recording which invites close listening because on some of the tracks it feels like Perelman solo work but you need to listen to the gentle, intricate, delicate pickery going on behind and then that sound somehow comes forward. Perelman achieves a quietude at times which allows the strings to come forth and dominate but not often. More, the music is a oneness yet a due performance which is complementary and enjoyable.

This is improvisation in the true sense - two musicians listening, engaged, challenging, rising, falling away seemingly effortlessly yet the expertise is such that anyone copying this would find it nigh on impossible. The variety of musical forms created in the spur of the moment is amazing and strangely lyrical and earthy.

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Mette Rasmussen and Julien Desprez – The Hatch (Dark Tree, 2019) ****

By Nick Ostrum

If one were to consider just the last few releases by these musicians covered on FJB, one would think they are coming from opposing corners of the free jazz world. Rasmussen, as covered here, comes from the 70s-inspired skronk which fit seamlessly into the heavy, punk rock of MoE . Desprez, for his part, came onto my radar in his deliciously noisy collaboration with Luís Lopes . On closer inspection, however, this collaboration is not the collision of opposing sub-subgenres that I had assumed. Rasmussen has collaborated with everyone from Chris Corsano ( here , here , and here ) to Alan Silva to, maybe most appropriate for this release, the guitarist Tashi Dorji . Desprez has performed with a similarly wide range of collaborators including fellow French musicians Benjamin Duboc and Eve Risser to Chicagoans Mars Williams and Rob Mazurek to Californian Larry Ochs. (Hat tip to The Bridge project for facilitating many of these transatlantic collaborations.) Both Desprez and Rasmussen, moreover, have worked in Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra , which masterfully marries the Scandinavian post-Ayler tradition with more contemporary avant-rock and post-punk aesthetics.

Although one might be able to anticipate the elements on The Hatch – the clicks and clatters, the boxy abstractions and the deep, heavy undercurrents, the moments of exuberant outbursts – their mixture and interactions make this album more than a aggregation of elements. Indeed, this is not just a meeting of young luminaries doing their own things in the same room but a true collaboration wherein Rasmussen and Desprez push each other to explore different sides of their instruments and abilities. Tracks range from the schizophrenic and clattery (Roadkill Junkies, Twin Eye, Black Sand) to the angularly delicate and droning (Clay on Your Skin) to the spacious, sibilant, and subtle (Offenders, Orange Plateau) to the gloomily spiritual (Matters of the Soul). In other words, this album runs the contemporary improv, extended technique, electroacoustic gamut with great curiosity and confidence and to great effect.

I am not really sure how to categorize the hatches they have spelunked here, or the musical offspring they have incubated. That said, the corridors they have discovered are rich and variegated; their creation, a deeply textured sonic wonder. Hopefully, The Hatch is not the last of the brood.

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Ken Vandermark & Terrie Ex - Scaffolding (Terp, 2019) ****

By Eyal Hareuveni

Ken Vandermark says that his second album with Dutch guitarist Terrie Ex, aka Terrie Hessels, is “perhaps the most successful documentation of my struggle to battle Derek Bailey's axiom: The problem with the saxophone is that every time you pick it up, it's jazz”. And indeed, any musical meeting with Hessels is an enchanting opportunity to encounter a series of known unknowns, as there is no way to know in what which Hessels is going to surprise you. Hessels always plays with urgent, nervous energy and complete irreverence to form or narrative; he refuses to settle on any rhythmic patterns and his sense of time and space are totally intuitive and rely on his super-fast instincts. Plus, he is gifted with wild imagination and sharp, dadaist sense of humor. “Terrie's improvising puts me into a context where most of the musical languages I know fail to communicate, their vocabulary and grammar are completely foreign to needs at hand,” concludes Vandermark, “when playing with him I am constantly pushed to try and invent new techniques and methods of articulation to express myself.”

Vandermark and Hessels have been collaborating for 15 years now. Vandermark has joined on about 100 performances of Hessels’ band, The Ex. Both also play in the Lean Left quartet (with The Ex’ guitarist Andy Moor and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love) and in Vandermark’s new large ensemble Entr'acte. They released their debut duo album, Splinters, culled from performances that took place in 2014 and 2015, on Vandermark’s label Audiographic. Scaffolding was recorded in Hessels’ attic by his daughter, singer-songwriter Lena Hessels, in December 2017, and released on Ex's label, Terp.

As Guy Peters mentions in his liner notes, these good friends somehow manage to find “seemingly incompatible tactics that somehow fit together.” The tactics, as the titles often suggest, are quite chaotic, and opt for muscular head-on collisions and jumpy cat-and-mouse games with a raw, in-your-face sound. There is no end to the energy of Vandermark and Hessels on the opening “Fixed Length Pelican” or to the countless manners that both attempt to outsmart or humor each other, sometimes simultaneously, on “New Paper.” You can feel their close intimacy on the somewhat lyrical “Paid by the Kilometer” or their joy of stretching and mutating any rhythmic pattern on “Attic Group”. Vandermark disciplines Hessels' hammering - literally - on the guitar strings into an abstract, melancholic soundscape. “Second Hand Diary” is the only piece with leisurely, conversational interplay. “Instant Extant” highlights the emotional, poetic depth of this unique duo. Both sing praises to their friendship over a plate of “Herring”, but would not miss a chance to tease each other on the following “Another Good Idea” or to trade humorous comments about dear friend of both, legendary drummer Han Bennink, on the last “This Is Not Han's Pipe”.

Inspiring but dense 34 minutes of total freedom (which does not sound like jazz at all).

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Peter Brötzmann / Heather Leigh - Sparrow Nights (Trost, 2018) *****

By Eyal Hareuveni

Sparrow Nights offers the most comprehensive overview of the turbulent, chaotic and complex love relationship of German reeds titan Peter Brötzmann and American pedal steel guitar player Heather Leigh. Any one who have experienced this duo performs live or have listened to the duo previous three live recordings from the last three years must have sensed the strong, sensual essence of this collaboration, different from any other collaboration from Brötzmann. The duo with Leigh is one of the most active outfits of Brötzmann in recent years, often sharing the stage with other long-standing colleagues of Brötzmann - Japanese trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, guitarist Keiji Haino and drummer Sabu Toyozumi.

The live recordings, naturally, focused on the more furious, physical and even provocative sides of Brötzmann-Leigh collaboration, best captured on the explicit Sex Tape (Trost, 2017), Sparrow Nights allows both to take their intriguing relationship a step further. The studio environment enables Brötzmann to offer more sides of his strong personality, and Brötzmann has used wisely the generous studio time - spread over 78 minutes, in a six-track vinyl or ten-track disc - and explored more tonal and timbral nuances, adding the alto and bass saxophones and the b-flat, bass and contra-alto clarinets to his familiar tenor sax. Martin Siewert (of Radian) captured and mastered brilliantly at his studio in Vienna the complex dynamics of Brötzmann and Leigh. Brötzmann, as usual, did the artwork, more implicit this time than the cover of Sex Tape.

Brötzmann playing with Leigh has always suggested a gentle, touching side behind the rough and tough demeanor. The angry and aggressive blues ballads of previous live recordings have transformed now into more subtle and coherent expressions of a vulnerable and painful, but also protective and compassionate, relationship, reflecting his immense experience and one-of-a-kind wisdom. Brötzmann sounds softer than ever on the opening, straight ahead and emotional ballad “Summer Rain”. Leigh deepens gently this seductive vein with minimalist, resonating lines on “The Word Love”, answered by fragile, poetic cries of Brötzmann on the clarinet.

There is a strong sense of openness and fluidity in the Brötzmann and Leigh interplay, as in a relationship of a mature couple who have experienced few excruciating emotional storms. Even when the interaction becomes confrontational and melancholic as on “It’s Almost Dark”, dark and chaotic on the following title-piece and immediately afterwards openly brutal and bold on the “This Time Around”, both still rely on their intimate kinship throughout these section.

“River of Sorrows” reaffirms that Brötzmann and Leigh reconcile, following the previous, heated confrontation, and is sweeter than expected. Both do not need more than few, simple gestures to re-establish their rare intimacy. Brötzmann alternates here between singing melodious lines on the bass clarinet and dense yet poetic cries while Leigh mirrors his emotional upheavals with raging waves of her own. “At First Sight” and “All Of Us” emphasize again and again the ecstatic, essential passion that cements this collaboration.

But, eventually, Brötzmann and Leigh are fully aware and have no illusions about the prospects of their relationship - the personal and the musical - as the aching, concluding ballad “My Empty Heart” and the intense “The Longer We’re Apart” hint. Brötzmann and Leigh cry their hearts out - literally - him in his familiar ferocious mode and her in a more reserved manner. But both sound as have not said all there is to be said about this precious, stormy collaboration.

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Peter Brötzmann/Heather Leigh - Crowmoon (self-released, 2018) ***½

By Martin Schray

Peter Brötzmann’s collaboration with pedal steel guitarist Heather Leigh is often like a box of chocolates - you never know what you’re gonna get. Colin has seen a very good gig at Salford’s Islington Mill, while I witnessed a very mediocre one at the A’Larmé! IV festival in 2016 and a botched performance at the Enjoy Jazz festival the same year (admittedly also due to sound problems). The reedman and Leigh have released two albums so far: Ears Are Filled With Wonder , which I liked a lot when it came out, and Sex Tape, which in my eyes is one of Brötzmann’s weaker albums in recent years. Considering all this, I had no expectations for Crowmoon - and was pleasantly surprised.

Lately, Brötzmann is at his best when he is playing with first class musicians. His collaboration with Paal Nilssen-Love and Steve Swell resulted in three great releases, his live gigs with Full Blast and his duo with drummer Steve Noble were always superb (at least the ones I saw). At the age of 77 he needs a break here and there and can hardly play two sets in a row, his famous lung-busting attacks need to be well-measured. That’s why it helps when his collaborators can take over, which has sometimes been a problem with Heather Leigh. Her playing is often reserved, reduced, and even a bit simple, she just seems to accompany him. Then again, one might rather evaluate her contributions as the ones of bands like Black Bombain or Defibrillator - from a rock/noise perspective. Her textures are like a tapestry of sound to which Brötzmann can add dramatic, passionate outpourings, smeared fanfares with a certain melancholic touch, and lyrical, just beautiful melodies. Leigh’s playing on this album is very crispy and shimmering, more trenchant and less convenient, yet minimal and riff-orientated. There’s a moment which even reminded me of AC/DC (which is meant as a compliment). Brötzmann uses this circumstance to play shapely, lush lines in the great late phase Brötz style. The Wuppertal dragon is in tremendous form, especially at the beginning of the gig.

This is what happens on Crowmoon - on the one hand. On the other hand, the album is a celebration of Brötzmann’s qualities as a balladeer. He processes his “Master of a Small House“ theme, one of five or six motives he’s been using constantly in duo or solo outfits these days. Brötzmann introduces it twice, always after Leigh has dropped out. When he plays solo, his vibrato-laden style is put to the fore, producing singing harmonics, which is a real pleasure to listen to and worthwhile the purchase alone.

Crowmoon was recorded in Auckland/New Zealand in 2017. It’s available as a hand numbered limited edition of 300 copies. Brötzmann sells it at live shows. You can also get it if you write him an e-mail.

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Mette Rasmussen &Tashi Dorji (Feeding Tube Records, 2018) ****½

By Nick Metzger

This record compiles two performances from the duo of saxophonist Mette Rasmussen and guitarist Tashi Dorji. Recorded in Montreal, the first four tracks were laid down at Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango, with the last track capturing a live performance at La Sala Rosa. Rasmussen has been involved in some of my favorite recordings of the past 5 or so years. Her playing on collaborations with Chris Corsano, Paul Flaherty, Alan Silva and of course the acclaimed Tashi Dorji/Tyler Damon combo is inventive, precise, and powerful. Likewise, Dorji is one of the most multi-faceted improvising guitarists of our time. His playing is unique and captivating whether electric or acoustic, through effects pedals, clean, and/or with preparations. His duo albums with Tyler Damon (Both Will Escape and Leave No Trace) have been among the most enthusiastically received by the writers of this blog, and his immense solo guitar back catalogue is filled to the brim with innovative playing and timbral concepts. Here we find the duo settling into a series of texturally rich and fiery improvisations.

Cattail Horse gets the duo started with Rasmussen’s burly honking and squeals blasted out over Dorji’s metallic slashing. The saxophone runs pristine scales and patterns over the manic guitar work. Dorji then loops a rhythmic figure which segues into Bull Rush, over which he weaves deep-toned notes with pointillist and trebly shapes. Rasmussen is brilliantly lyrical over the din until roughly the midpoint, at which point the pair delve into a rapturous segment of free playing that spans the remainder of the track. As Affinity begins Dorji rolls back the distortion but not the intensity, providing a wiry bed of fretwork for Rasmussen who augments her timbre with preparations, making her lines crackle and sizzle. The piece grows more restrained towards the end, with chiming prepared guitar and quiet sax hissing. Tall Grass begins with Rasmussen utilizing extended techniques and vocalizing through her instrument which imparts an almost vocoder-like effect. Dorji offers complex ringing veils of textural thunderclouds under which the saxophone whispers and whimpers. The live piece, Liberty, is the longest of this set and finds the duo playing off each other in an animated tapestry of controlled power. Dorji explodes into wailing tremolo picking and Rasmussen meets him in unison, rupturing like a tidal wave on the break wall. The playing takes on tremendous intensity and they ride out the momentum until it dissipates into a spectral landscape of soft sax trills and sinewy guitar noise. Dorji then imparts a reprise of the looped figure from the first track as Rasmussen blasts forceful figures over top, both players stopping on a dime to well-deserved applause.

Duo albums can sometimes feel quite sparse, but this is full of texture and activity. And while it is pretty noisy it never becomes too cacophonic to be enjoyable. The density of the improvisations isn’t of the overlapping non-communicative variety, but is rather sympathetic and well timed. When one provides hard lines, the other provides color.  Their excellent rapport makes for a very compelling listen; let’s hope we hear a great deal more from this duo in the near future.

Listen and download from Bandcamp.

Rassmussen/Dorji Duo at Brooklyn Steel, NYC:

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Ivo Perelman & Joe Morris – Blue (Leo Records, 2016) ****

By Chris Haines

“Serial Music is integrative, in the sense that it deals with differences in such a way that the individual characters are maintained while at the same time a unity is achieved.  The defining difference of serial from thematic music derives from the relationship of the elements: in thematic music, the elements do battle; here, they are elements in a continuum.” (Grant, M.J. (2001) Serial Music, Serial Aesthetics, Cambridge: CUP, p.164)

First and foremost the music on this album may have been influenced by Serialism, in the way that the works of Webern also influenced Derek Bailey, but the music itself is not Serialist.  The strict system, which that implies, needs rigorous planning and a disciplined but creative compositional strategy, with the very essence of this being at odds with an improvisational approach.  In this way, it is not the actual system but the sound of the music that has sparked Ivo Perelman’s creativity as an improvising musician.

This album is about the colour Blue in all it’s connotations and meanings, it’s certainly not the ‘Blues’ in a structural sense (although there are melodic passages which hint at these stylistic traits) and as Perelman is also a very accomplished painter it seems that the blueness of the music is more fixed on the visual idea, whilst seeping over into more emotional responses.  I very much like Perelman’s visual art and the winding contrapuntal lines of the music seem to be an audible manifestation of his more drip-like Jackson Pollock inspired pieces.  As an album of improvised duets between tenor saxophone (Ivo Perelman) and acoustic guitar (Joe Morris), this is the first time that Perelman has recorded with just these two instruments in an intimate setting, and one that he also had reservations about with regard to the viability of the project.  However, he needn’t have worried and the music on the album is a triumph, once listened to carefully and with respect for what the musicians are trying to achieve.

The title track starts the album and Perelman’s sax, with Aylerish-vibrato at times, carries the foreground melody whilst Morris’ guitar provides accompaniment mainly through freely atonal chordal voicing’s with interspersed linking single lines.  This piece sets the overall tone for the album, which the rest of the music carefully continues with great consistency, such is its serial aesthetic.  The second piece ‘Turtle Dance’ reminds me of some of Perelman’s ‘taking a line for a walk’ type paintings with the two complex lines of the sax and guitar criss-crossing over each other. This constructs a complex texture that appears more of a musical object, that we get to view at different angles, as opposed to a piece with an obvious structure that we follow on a journey through time.  This is even more apparent on the shorter pieces such as ‘Bluebird’ and ‘Instant’ that come in at around the minute mark with their splashes of colour that also seem to have a clear parallel in the visual art of Perelman.

Out of the nine pieces that make up Blue one of my favourites is ‘Wee Hours’ a track that starts with a husky melody on the sax with a guitar accompaniment that is almost playing a blues turnaround.  The piece gradually and consistently develops with the simple lines becoming increasingly more complex before a bluesy melodic line marks the end of the sax’s input, with Morris’ guitar coming to the fore for a timbral and structural contrast before Perelman’s re-entry to bring the piece to a close.  More ‘bluesy’ fragments are also on view (so to speak) in the piece ‘Almost Blue’ which is similar in it’s overall form to ‘Wee Hours’, also having the feel of an abstracted ballad and containing this feeling in it’s essence.

The nature of the instrumentation naturally gives the album an overall introspective and intimate feel and there is clearly a link between Perelman’s thoughts as a painter as well as an improviser.  As an inward-looking album, Blue doesn’t necessarily come out and grab you and it may take a while to tune-in to the dynamics of the pieces.  However, the playing is subtle, complex and heartfelt, whilst the title sways your listening bias to hear passages that seem to have developed out of the Blues, of which there are clear moments.  Blue is a consistent set of complex musical interactions with unique forms having been influenced by a Serial aesthetic.

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And many more ...

By Paul Acquaro

We conclude this week of duos with four recordings featuring the saxophone and a stringed instrument - in this case cello, bass, bass guitar and guitar, and then close out with two classic sax and drum duos. The problem is, it's hard to stop here. Just in the time of the creation of this week of reviews, a new recording from OutNow called Esoteric Duos hit the shelves, as did a Clean Feed release of Evan Parker and Alexander Hawkins ... and so many others. What to do. What to do.

Leila Bordreuil and Michael Foster - The Caustic Ballads (Relative Pitch, 2016) ****

Michael Foster (sax) and Leila Bordreuil (cello) are two young musicians from Brooklyn, whose musical partnership extends back to their meeting while studying music at Bard College.

On Caustic Ballads, the duo starts on the outside - way outside - and that old loaded term extended technique is the perfect descriptor to be applied here. This track, 'Born of its own Asphyxiation' sports a creepy title and is an engaging introduction to what has already been presented, by the cover art, as a somewhat sadomasochistic outing. Foster begins with air and fizzy dissonance while Bordreuil exploits the upper harmonics of the cello.as the track proceeds, all sorts of unusual sounds are used. The extra-instrumental materials and techniques are varied, especially on a track like 'Pleasure and Cruelty', which seems to incorporate the sounds of jackhammers and chain links.

There is an unusual intensity that builds during the first two tracks, and by the time 'Intimate Shrinkage of My Body and the Castration of My Life' comes together, the music reaches a climatic skronk. Fast forward a bit and track seven, "Wherever the Orgasm Discharges Its Internal Rottenness," is another peek of energy and sound. 

The energy on Caustic Ballads is focused and intense, and the vision is complete, as these two musicians already display a great amount of control over their instruments in creating otherworldly soundscapes. Like another recent release, Premature Burial's The Conjuring, and I'm sure many other, there seems to be a style emerging from the depths of Gowanus that is challenging, provocative and a bit disturbing!

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Keir Neuringer & Rafel Mazur - Diachronic Paths (Relative Pitch, 2016) ****

Another recording of a long standing duo, Philadelphia-based saxophonist Keir Neuringer and Kraków-based bassist Rafal Mazur deliver an extraordinary album with Diachronic Paths.

The recording is split into six tracks. Taking the album title literally, each a 'path' would seem to suggest a study, or a variation, of how language changes through time. Over the years that this duo has made music together, they have developed a kinetic approach that is as personal as it is inspiring. With the peeling sounds of circular breathing and the occasional honk of the alto saxophone along with the 16th note runs and choice chord voicing on the bass guitar, the sheer amount of musical ideas that pours forth is vital and fresh from the initial to the final path.

For example, the 'Third Path': the track begins with Neuringer playing an extended tone, it's imperfect in that it wavers and trills come and go, but all the while, Mazur is darting about, playing above and below the line set by Neuringer's single-minded note. This type of energetic matching of energy and ideas is a constant, they respond to each other, egg each other on, and make daring music together.

Diachronic Paths is an album that rewards repeated and attentive listening, and it a valuable documentation of a duo deep into a 17-year-old conversation. 

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Adam Pieronczyk & Miroslav Vitous - Wings (ForTune, 2015) ****

Adam Pieronczyk (tenor & soprano sax, zoucra) is a Kraków-based player with an impressive discography, and Miroslav Vitous (bass) hardly needs an introduction and is of course well known for his work with early Weather Report and more recent titles on ECM. Together, they create gentle, yet insistent improvisations on Wings.

The opening track, 'Enzo and the Blue Mermaid' starts with a bebop line as if written by Raymond Carver - there are hints of the blues, and suggestions of syncopation, but only just what is necessary. Vitous brings an undercurrent of tension to his melodic lines that Pieroncyzk reflects back and soars over. 

'Bach at Night' is a lively piece. Its framework falls away quickly as the duo participates in a trading of phrases. 'I'm Flying! I'm Flying' is introduced with a melodic hook that provides a reference point for the improvisation that follows. The restraint in which they start with gives a fiery track like 'Hanly' - which appears midway through the album - that much more power. Pieroncyzk switches to the zoucra for this one which from what I can tell sounds like a double reed instrument, and its unusual tonality is a nice change.

I know I'm coming to this recording a bit late, as it was released in December, however, Wings is a wonderful album that requires patient and dedicated listening. It doesn't jump out at first, rather it suggests a story that fills in over time.

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Tobias Brügge Matthew Grigg Duo - Vocabularies (Unknown Tongue, 2016) ****

Adopting the practice of dedicating songs - or tracks - to their inspirations, Tobias Brügge (saxophone) and Mathew Grigg (guitar/amplifier) deliver a wide-range of ideas on this release from Unknown Tongues. The improvisations styles range from lowercase passages to explosive forays. The flow of brittle intersections of sax and guitar to powerful scorched earth moments is both organic and born from a certain extrasensory perception.

Vocabularies begins with 'Peace & Fire (for Mats Gustafson)'. There is an interesting contrast between Brügge who uses short phrases to connect with Griggs' textural approach as the track begins. After a moment of quiet, they launch into an exploration of 'small' sounds, like the pops and clicks of the sax's mouthpiece and the pluck of strings on the other side of the guitar's bridge. They then slowly re-build momentum into longer, denser passages. 'Arch Duo (for Derek and Evan)' begins with much drama - Brügge's sax leaping from the speaker and Griggs' guitar particularly snarling, capturing perhaps the well know energies in the partnership of Evan Parker and Derek Bailey.

In distilling the creative spark of their influences, the duo of Brügge and Grigg develop their own challenging and rewarding music.



Matthew Grigg has been a contributor to the blog, check out some of his reviews here.

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John Butcher / Paal Nilssen-Love - Concentric (Clean Feed, 2016) ****

Clean Feed's re-release of Concentric is an unexpected and welcome re-addition to its catalog! First released in 2006, the sax and drum duo of John Butcher and Paal Nilssen-Love is an expansive collaborative exploration of music and sound that needs to be heard.

Butcher is a master of the saxophone - both musically and technically. His unfettered idiosyncratic approach mixes short rhythmic attacks, otherworldly sounds, and unusually constructed melodic passages into cohesive and often evocative statements. Love - an extraordinary percussionist and band leader - compliments the saxophonist with inventive and responsive percussion, matching and contrasting moods, tempos, and textures. Concentric is also a nice companion to Love's well-documented duo work with both Ken Vandermark and Joe McPhee, as it showcases yet another unique and virtuosic approach to the duo.

Definitely worth discovering or rediscovering, Concentric is replete with fascinating sounds and textures - a riveting set of duos!

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Paul Dunmall & Tony Bianco – Autumn (FMR, 2014) ****½

So, to wrap up this series of reviews, I wanted to pick up on an excellent recording that has been eluding my 'pen' for a bit too long.

Paul Dunmall (sax) and Tony Bianco (drums) are another long-standing duo that operates more in the 'fire-music' mode of free jazz. Their partnership has produced several tributes to John Coltrane, modeled after the seminal drum and sax pairing of Rashied Ali and Coltrane.

Dunmall's playing is absolutely captivating, he has an intensity of sound that rises like a high tide, and as its waves break over you, its undertow will sweep you out into the rising ocean. Recorded at Delbury Hall, in Shropshire, England in November 2014, the first two tracks of Autumn are teasers, brimming with life, their condensed arcs set expectations for the half hour "Autumn", which again features Dunmall's effortless flow of ideas and notes, the absolutely air-tight connection between himself and Bianco.

If you haven't heard this one yet, do yourself a favor ...

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Garrison Fewell & Gianni Mimmo – Flawless Dust (Long Song Records, 2016) ****

By Chris Haines

Last year Inverso, the album of duets by Garrison Fewell and Alessio Alberghini, was my top pick of the year, and completely coincidentally the review of this album was posted on the day that Garrison Fewell sadly passed on.  As a wonderful guitarist, Fewell was an expert accompanist, giving just the right support to those he played with whilst allowing them the space to soar and sound magnificent. He was also an outstanding soloist and could easily traverse the line between playing standard material as well as more out-there excursions and flights of fancy.

It is therefore very satisfying to welcome another set of recordings into the canon of his work.  Flawless Dust is another set of duets and another chance to hear this late and great guitarist in an intimate setting, this time with soprano saxophonist Gianni Mimmo.

The album starts with the title track, and the same subtlety that the Inverso pieces had, with Fewell bobbling and sliding a ‘found object’ on the open strings of his guitar, whilst Mimmo gradually enters over the course of the piece initially with multiphonic tones that sound more akin to electronic feedback.  These then blend with the notion of the electric guitar and the expectation of it, whilst creating a sustained contrast to Fewell’s higgledy-piggledy sounds.

In contrast to this is the next track ‘Song’, with Mimmo playing a free melodic line whilst Fewell accompanies underneath with some quick and choppy chords played chromatically in progression, before providing an atonal countermelody to Mimmo’s.  Having moved from sound based improv, with emphasis on texture, we now find ourselves in a short and traditional piece, in the sense of melodies, harmonies and instrumental roles that are liberated from tonality in its strictest sense.

These points, just from these first two tracks seem to create stylistic markers for the album, with subtle and discreet playing, textural based improv and explorative melodic passages forming the key areas within the music.  Flawless Dust consists of ten tracks of variable length, from the short and concise nature of “Other Chat” at just over a minute to the fourteen minutes of “A Floating Caravan” with its sparse nature of exotic sounds that conjure up the image of a slow trek through an arid desert, with added percussion in bells and Mimmo producing flute-like tones, whilst Fewell plays his guitar more like a hammered dulcimer.

Flawless Dust is an interesting and creative set of dialogues that are both fluid in their execution and uncompromising in their direction.

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Peter Van Huffel & Alex Maksymiw - Kronix (Fresh Sound Records, 2016) ****

By Derek Stone

Peter Van Huffel is a Berlin-based alto saxophonist who many readers might recognize for his work in Gorilla Mask (a high-octane, thrash-jazz outfit) and the Boom Crane trio. Alex Maksymiw is a guitarist who has played with various groups and orchestras, and last year’s Without a Word found him occupying the “leader” role for the second time in his steadily-accelerating career. Although the two have been playing together for around three years, Kronix marks their first recorded meeting - and what a meeting it is! Fans of Gorilla Mask should not expect the same scuffed-up intensity of that group; Kronix is more contemplative, more pensive, but it lacks none of the fire that one can hear in spades on albums like 2014’s Bite My Blues (see the review above). Instead of the uncontrolled, white-hot flames of that record, though, we get a muted glow - the fire has been subdued a bit, left to smolder.

“The Charmers” opens with an admittedly charming theme from Van Huffel, free-wheeling and joyous, and accompanied by Maksymiw’s circular slides, up-and-down the fretboard. It’s a lovely way to open the album, but it doesn’t exactly set the tone for the melancholic batch of tunes that follows: “Excerpt Two” finds Van Huffel augmenting a forlorn stream of notes with echo effects, approximating a lone cry in a cave. Of course, he’s not in complete solitude - Maksymiw is there to provide the reverb-laden equivalent of a Greek chorus, mirroring the drama of Van Huffel’s saxophone with his own desolate musings. “Slow Burn” is similar in some ways, but adds an extra dose of, yes, slow-burning tension. “The Dreamer,” a track which originally appeared on Maksymiw’s album of the same name, is here stripped down to its essence, becoming a twilit dirge of sorts.

To be sure, it’s not all anxiety and desolation. On “Anyhow,” Maksymiw utilizes distortion to great effect, lending a wild urgency to Van Huffel’s swirling stream of notes. Likewise, “Petrichor” features the same crunching, hard-hitting riffage, but here it’s interspersed with moments of crisp, clean lines and Van Huffel’s terse explorations. “Fuse,” the final standalone composition (there’s an alternate take of “Anyhow” tacked on), sounds just like its name suggests - a tiny spark that swells into a flame, and finally detonates in a cascade of echoes from Van Huffel’s sax.

Kronix doesn’t make any grand statements, and it doesn’t break any boundaries, but it doesn’t need to. It’s a concise collection of tunes that is, at times, downright beautiful. Highly recommend to those who like their jazz on the more meditative side - but I’m willing to bet that even fans of the wild, explosive Gorilla Mask will find something to love here.

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Dom Minasi & Chris Kelsey - Duets NYC/Woodstock (Tzazz Krytyk,2015) ****

By Paul Acquaro

I recently covered a duo recording of guitarist Dom Minasi paired with saxophonist Blaise Siwula. Last year, I wrote about one with pianist Michael Jefry Stevens, and another with Hans Tammen. The duo format seems to be one that Minasi enjoys, and for that I'm greatful, as his latest with soprano sax player Chris Kelsey, Duets NYC/Woodstock, is an absolute joy of an album.

I was unfamiliar with Kelsey's playing but am hooked now. The duo locks into strong grooves that rely on implicit pulses - and how they move! There are a great deal of rapid fire runs, but they are balanced against an equal amount of reflective moments.

The opener 'Fondness & Trepidation' both sports a fun title and a wealth of musical ideas. I would say that fondness is the operative work and trepidation just a bit of self-effacing humor as the duo shows great compatibility from the get go. Minasi strums, plucks and picks, and you can sense the camaraderie after Kelsey's first few notes. Speaking of which, there are many, as his melodic lines rise and fall with vim and vigor. 

The two standout tracks are 'Rod Serling' and 'Say What', which come towards the middle and end of the album. The former starts with Minasi offering a melody and Kelsey reacting with a repetitive motif, gaining in speed and ferocity until reaching a breaking point, and beginning again. The latter features Kelsey's elliptical and syncopated melody against the fierce comping that Minasi uses to deftly manipulate the direction of the musical conversation.

If you only get one Dom Minasi duo album this year, get this one, and then while you're at it, pick up the others.

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Thurston Moore and Mats Gustafsson Round Up: Day 2

The Thing & Thurston Moore – Live (The Thing Records/Trost, 2015) ****½ 

By Martin Schray

Many people speculate on what kind of music Jimi Hendrix would have played if he hadn’t died on September, 18 in 1970 at the age of 27 only. His last regular album, the live recording Band of Gypsys, was more open to jazz, funk, rhythm and blues and jam elements, maybe due to the fact that he had a different rhythm section (Billy Cox on bass instead of Noel Redding; Buddy Miles instead of Mitch Mitchell on drums). So, what kind of music might he have made? In my wildest dreams I can imagine Hendrix playing with all kind of creative improvisers like Joe McPhee, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Ronald Shannon Jackson or Peter Brötzmann. Especially in the band of the last two musicians, Last Exit, he would have been a great alternative to Sonny Sharrock. What such a line up might have sounded like you can experience listening to The Thing and Thurston Moore.

The Thing (Mats Gustafsson on saxes, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums) have always been a blues/hardrock band in a jazz disguise, there have always been Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheer or White Stripes elements in their music (even if it is based on free jazz in general). And with Ex-Sonic-Youth guitarist Thurston Moore and Gustafsson’s and Håker Flaten ‘s decision to use only the baritone saxophone and the electric bass the rock/noise influence is even more obvious.

Live consists of two long tracks, “Blinded by Thought” and ”Awakened by you“, which both lead to spectacular riffs at the end of each piece – “Blinded  by Thought” flows into a monotonous monster rock riff while “Awakened by you” ends with a blues theme reminding of Willie Dixon’s “Hoochie Coochie Man”. Both endings are initiated and held together by Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s bass guitar, so that especially Gustafsson can growl and cry and Moore can contribute a whole wall of noise texture. There is a real increase as to intensity and expressivity in both tracks as well, since they start in a rather meditative mood (the first one a dialogue between Mats and Moore, in the second one the whole band is involved with Gustafsson and Håker Flaten responsible for the melody).

Live is like a mad rodeo ride, with Paal Nilssen-Love as the horse which is bucking and bitching, and the others are like pyromaniac rough riders always setting new blazes. Hellish, exuberant, devastating, delusional – great!

Play it loud and feel free to headbang now and then. Still my favorite band!

The album is available as a CD and on vinyl.

You can buy it from the label (http://thethingrecords.com/).

Listen to it here:



And here are two live gigs:

Merzbow/Mats Gustafsson/Balázs Pándi/Thurston Moore - Cuts Of Guilt, Cuts Deeper (RareNoiseRecords, 2015)

By Paolo Casertano

I tried not to review this album. Frankly. Most of all because sometimes I think that the blog over-covers (I admit I might be one of the most suspected about it) the production of some artists that supposedly don’t need anymore to be praised for their incontrovertible value.

We have here gathered a noise living legend, a ubiquitous (I mean this as a wish, Mats should be in schoolbooks!) saxophone ace and cultural firebrand, the guitar soldier that - you like it or not - has been among the few real sound-shapers of what we have listened in the last decades, and finally a young constantly growing drummer (no pressure on his shoulders). They do exactly what you may expect they do. Dangerous whistles, drillings, aural scratches, nitrites, trumpeting (I mean the one made by an elephant not by the notorious instrument - this must be specified), relentless hammerings, sweat, guitar swaths, the ignition of a rocket, whirlpools, condensation, slackening, whirling ascent and descent, fire cracks, strings and magnets tortures, noise shreds unravelling from a sound stream, a sound stream submerged by noise shreds, wounds, probably a couple of holes in the amps, maybe some corpses too. Without warning - and then with some disorientation for the listener - also some quiet moments opening and closing act three. Again and again. And again. Both for a too long and for a too short lapse of time. And they master all this hell as really few people can do. Rating this would be as rating the Pope for the way he celebrates Mass.

So, all in all, why should I not review this? I have just listened to it - undoubtedly and respectfully with in-earphones (I’m not a poseur guys!) - for the third time and I am noticeably confused and soberly happy.

Once in a while I went for the digital. The label provides also the HD FLAC 24bit/96kHz version, so that this maelstrom sounds particularly bright and analysable. All the other formats are also available.

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