Sylvie Courvoisier Trio - D’Agala (Intakt, 2018) ****½

By Lee Rice Epstein

Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier is back with her trio, Drew Gress on bass and Keith Wollesen on drums. Courvoisier has been on a roll these past couple of years, with a number of superb partnerships, numerous supporting roles, and many collaborations. D’Agala is only the second album with this trio, following 2014’s Double Windsor. When she released that album, on Tzadik, Courvoisier wrote, “John Zorn had been asking me to do a piano-trio record for ages, but I always felt the great history of the piano trio was so intimidating.” This time around, she digs deep into her personal history and turns out a dramatic and sensitive album, filled with emotional and uniquely thoughtful music. This is due, in part, to the way Courvoisier, Gress, and Wollesen each seem to draw music music out of, rather than playing music on, their instruments. It’s a subtle difference, but the opener, “Imprint Double (for Antoine Courvoisier)” showcases this beautifully: Courvoisier begins in a stride mood, a nod to her father who plays piano and taught her to play boogie and shuffle. It’s not long, however, before the trio goes to some very different, inspired spaces beyond dixieland.

I have no theories on why this is, but it seems like some of the best tributes to Ornette Coleman recently have come from piano players, ironically, since he eschewed the instrument for most of his career. Aki Takase released her great double-album with Silke Eberhard a few years ago, and on “Éclats (for Ornette Coleman)” the trio pays tribute to Coleman with a brisk head-improvisation-head structure referencing much of his earliest work. Gress, and Wollesen dive headfirst into a blues, something that always lay at the heart of Coleman’s work. Gress and Wollesen open with more of a Haden/Higgins feel, but channel Izenzon/Moffett during an extended free workout in the latter half, before Courvoisier circles back to the melody. Throughout the album, there’s a lightness and humor that brings the whole performance to life.

“D’Agala,” the title track, is dedicated to Geri Allen and is an incredibly evocative, dynamic performance. Courvoisier and Gress double on the melody, as Wollesen plays a soft, percussive textural pattern. Gress takes the first solo, an emotional, thoughtful reflection on a great artist lost. Courvoisier’s solos for a short while before imperceptibly sliding back into the melody. The somber, reflective mood is revisited on the finale, “South Side Rules (for John Abercrombie),” another tribute to a master who recently died. Gress opens with incredible runs, accented by Courvoisier’s searching lines. Wollesen keeps the whole piece moving forward with nicely harmonic cymbal playing. He’s mostly off the drums, proper, throughout the piece, instead mixing sticks and wire brushes on cymbals to great effect. In the final seconds, the whole trio rapidly comes together for a dramatic punctuation mark of a riff.

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Thurston Moore / Adam Gołębiewski - Disarm (Endless Happiness, 2017) ***½

By Eyal Hareuveni

Iconic experimental guitarist Thurston Moore explained recently what is his own Rock n Roll consciousness, the title of his recent solo album (Ecstatic Peace, 2017). Rock n Roll consciousness is actually about sex. When Moore’s defunct group Sonic Youth visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum, he learned that the term Rock N’ Roll was an African-American slang for having sex. It took Moore some time to absorb this kind of realization and in a recent interview to Rolling Stone he already identified with this kind of logic: “sex is nature, and nature is everything, and then rock & roll is everything.”

Moore brings this kind of Rock n’ Roll consciousness to a series of free-improvisations with Polish experimental drummer Adam Gołębiewski. Indeed there is no doubt that they were channeling the passion, emotional intensity and the totality of the experience in the halls of Warsaw and Gołębiewski’s hometown, Poznan, in May 2014, when these sessions were recorded.

Moore and Gołębiewski met and played together for the first time in 2013, in a trio with Yoko Ono. Gołębiewski had already played with innovative improvisers as reeds player Ken Vandermark, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, trumpeter Mazen Kerbaj and Moore’s frequent collaborator, sax titan Mats Gustafsson. Like Moore, Gołębiewski seeks to extend and expand the sonic possibilities of his chosen instrument.

Moore sets the atmosphere of the first piece “Disarm” with free-associative, series of thorny, feedback-laden sonic collisions. All Gołębiewski attempts to discipline this abstract flow of fast-shifting collisions with some loose, rhythmic coherence fail and this improvisation heads into more physical and more brutal confrontations. But Moore and Gołębiewski did not lost faith in each other. Soon on the following “Distend” both calibrate on an immediate, noisy frequency and act as one wild, freakish entity that threatens to crash all on its way. The short and sparse “Disturb” serves as a suggestive, teasing interlude before Moore and Gołębiewski race after each other in another set of intense physical collisions, some explosive ones, others surprisingly comforting and caressing, all totally exhausting. The last piece, “Dislodge”, summarizes the essence of Moore and Gołębiewski's interactions - stormy, dissonant and noisy but at the same time attentive, curious and urgent.

 

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Han Bennink, Steve Noble, Alexander Hawkins - 11.8.17 (Otoroku, 2018) *****

By Sammy Stein

Out on Otoroku 11.8.17 was recorded live at Café Oto, London. The first track Bennink-Hawkins has Han Bennink and Alexander Hawkins engaged in what at first sounds like a playground free for all. We have scales, we have polyrhythmic challenges and responses and we have, by the end, a seemingly effortless synergy where the two musicians seem to pre-empt the other before they play the notes, sometimes coming in with almost perfectly symmetrical timing. This is a track to listen and enjoy for its development and there is one gorgeous passage where Bennink simply crashes out a cymbal rhythm whilst Alexander Hawkins goes nuts – in a most controlled and musical manner – just what you need if you are ever find yourself wondering how improvised music works – here’s how!

This music grabs you hard and fast, frenetic episodes followed by laid back, almost silence-filled periods and there is such communication here, the flying energy is almost touchable. Alexander Hawkins makes the piano speak, sigh, shout, sing and the call and response references are here almost without the players being aware. For just over half and hour the two deliver completely engaging listening and there is a classical influenced section too with Hawkins masterfully incorporating Mengleberg-like and then Bach-like chordal progressions, before returning to his home base of improvisation, while Bennink reads him perfectly, ever controlling the percussive intonation and additions. There are so many changes and rhythmic alterations here and each time one of the musicians changes speed, tempo or reference, the other follows. Around the 18-20 minutes mark there are some wonderful changes and musical chases, which is just one of the reasons why this music is so listenable. It is about listening to each other, responding and engaging the listener – and it works. At times Bennink is ‘crash bang wallop’ and Alexander responds every time, giving an almost child-like competitive edge to some areas with a trace of humour and this also makes it easily referenceable and accessible. Other times, Bennink sets up deep, thrumming rhythms over which Hawkins improvises and extends his arms to include nearly the entire length of the keyboard at some point or other. Then, there is a bit of swing, with a (sort of) version of ‘Once in A While by Green/Edwards (I think) which is followed by enthusiastic applause before the pair return for a bit of improvised mayhem and enjoyment to finish the set. This is some of the most engaging and innovative playing I have heard for a long time. As the recording is live, there is some great banter and interaction as well.

Then to Bennink-Noble ( track 2). Introduced by Bennink with some jokes and gentle humour. The humour is just about all that can be described as gentle here. The incredible sound of Bennink and Noble fills the very essence of the air. This is noise, this is soundscapes, pictures created by the percussion talents of two of the most powerful forces in rhythmic escapades of today. Bennink delivers his characteristic heavy thrumming whilst Steve Noble plays catch up for a time before delivering his own leading rhythmic counter, which Bennink immediately throws back his way and so it goes on. Two drummers at the forefront of music – and it shows. At times the pair seem so in tune it sounds like a single, very intense drummer. Bennink then explains to the audience (and Steve) the intricacies of a drum roll – its difficulty and how it seems like a box of peas and a hailstorm (listen and you will understand). Noble duly delivers an extended roll and then we are off again, the noise coming in waves and rolls, beautifully controlled yet unplanned, unfettered and played with a freedom of spirit. An almost perfect storm is brewed by the two drummers playing together, apart, together, listening, together, apart and so on. Absolutely wonderful to listen to, the rhythms ebbing and flowing, changing, remaining, changing – you get the picture. It is hard to get across within the limitations imposed by narrative just how incredible the sound is – the loudness, the control and the generosity each players gives the other. Bennink has a habit of bringing out the best in himself at performances but also in others and here, he delivers in spades. Steve Noble is totally up for anything Bennink offers and then some. Two drummers, one aim, one total wonderful recording.

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Introducing Swedish Guitarist Finn Loxbo

By Eyal Hareuveni

Swedish guitarist Finn Loxbo is known as one of the two guitarists on Mats Gustafsson’s Fire Orchestra's Ritual Incarnation (Rune Grammofon, 2016), where he sketched noisy, thorny textures with French guitarist Julien Desprez, or from his role as aggressive electric bass player in the power trio Doglife. His solo albums offer a completely different side of his playing.

Finn Loxbo - Eter (Gikt, 2018) ***½

Eter - ether in Swedish, is Loxbo's second solo album but it is totally different from his debut Lines, Curtains (Kning disk, 2012), that featured him as a dreamy singer-songwriter, coming from the school of Nick Drake. Eter, the first album on Loxbo's newly founded label Gikt, was recorded in 2015 and focuses on a disciplined exploration of the sonic scope and timbral range of the acoustic, steel-stringed guitar.

Each of the seven pieces stresses a distinct mode of playing. “Slutet var nära redan då” is a methodical game of overtones created by touching gently the resonating strings, letting the gently ringing, metallic sounds extend and blend in each other. On “Dribblingar” Loxbo tunes the guitar as an exotic harp, sketching a melodic texture and on “Klockspik och märlor” he turns the guitar as an ethereal percussive instrument. He experiments with rubbing and scratching of the strings and the guitar wooden body on “Ont gott blod” and “Delirium”, offering nuanced and restless, industrial-sounding drones. “Land och sjövädret” is a free improvisation that links Loxbo to the pioneering work of Derek Bailey. This beautiful, free-associative improvisation slowly turns into an imaginative, lyrical composition. The last “Sa dom met” is a gentle, folk song that may originated in the sessions of Lines, Curtains.

Finn Loxbo / Erik Blennow Calälv - Snow Country (Creative Sources, 2017) ****

Loxbo's collaboration with bass clarinet player Erik Blennow Calälv, from the experimental quartet The Schematics, focuses on contemplative drones. It is one of Loxbo'a duo collaborations in recent years that also include sessions with pianists Lisa Ullén and Karin Johansson. The five pieces on Snow Country, recorded on April 2017, feature Loxbo creating fleeting, resonating tones on the acoustic, steel-stringed guitar and the musical saw, while Calälv adds shakuhachi-like, deep breaths that echo and blend within the guitar sounds. Both patiently suggest ethereal string of overtones that keep flowing around, almost embrace you gently.

The highly disciplined dimension of these pieces has a ritualistic-meditative quality, emphasized with a piece titled “Ryoanji”, after the famous Japanese Zen garden in Kyoto, that inspired before an ionic composition from John Cage. Just like in a meditative state of mind when all senses are suspended for a while only to experience these sense later on in all their intensity, Snow Country suggests a new listening experience. Loxbo and Calälv explore new, subtle qualities, colors and dynamics within the sounds themselves, just like the snow that comes in many shapes, textures and names in these Northern territories.

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Anton Hunter - Article XI (Efpi Records, 2018) ****

By Lee Rice Epstein

Guitarist Anton Hunter’s compositions build, layer by layer, like a solo performer adding instruments on a multitrack in their bedroom. Except here, it’s eleven players recorded live, at the Manchester Jazz Festival on 24 July 2014 and again at London’s Vortex three days later. The effect forces listeners into a patient, meditative mode. Take, for example, “Innards of Atoms”: after washing over you for roughly seven minutes, a brief, free call-and-response section leads into a brassy coda, infused with the rough-edged funkiness of early fusion. Credit here goes to drummer Johnny Hunter and bassist Eero Tikkanen for the rhythm and feel. Meanwhile, the melody sings from the front line of saxophonists Sam Andreae, Simon Prince, Mette Rasmussen, and Cath Roberts, trumpeters Graham South and Nick Walters, and trombonists Seth Bennett and Richard Foote.

Following the mesmerizing “C# Makes the World a Better Place,” the group launches into what’s essentially the title track, “Peaceful Assembly.” In the album notes, Hunter includes the group’s namesake, Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of their interests.” The resulting ode is a literal assembly of ideas, not to mention a really excellent performance, showcasing the Hunter’s somewhat cinematic approach to composition and conducting. Horns are layered in a deep depth of field, with each player crisp, leaving you to choose whether to zoom in on a particular sound or let the whole picture play. Just as suddenly, the horns will merge into a gorgeous melody, gradually pulling focus from one soundscape to another.

The inherent push-pull tension of composition and improvisation, and all the nebulous space between, give “I Almost Told You” a dramatic undercurrent. As Hunter spreads the melody across about half of the group, the solos traded in the latter half keep hinting at the resolution the title indicates will never come. The opening of “Not the Kind of Jazz You Like” provides a bit of clarity, as Hunter separates the horns into tonal layers, with Roberts leading Bennett and Foote in a swinging melody, as Andreae, Rasmussen, and Prince stack one set of blocky chords alongside South, Walters, and Hunter’s stack. It’s gorgeous, reminding me in many ways of David Murray’s big band take on his own “Dewey’s Circle.” The result is very much the kind of jazz I (and probably you) like, as, much like Murray’s big band, each member not only shines but clearly contributes to the whole. In jumping from duos and trios up to a big band, Hunter’s made a grand leap forward on Article XI.

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The New Old Luten Project

photo by Christian Hüller

By Martin Schray

Introduction:

When pianist Oliver Schwerdt met the young and energetic drummer Christian Lillinger in 2004 he immediately knew that he now could realize his idea for a band that was supposed to play classic free jazz of the 1960 and 70s. Schwerdt imagined the East German improvisation icon Ernst-Ludwig (Luten) Petrowsky on saxophone and clarinet, because he’s always loved the man’s seminal trio with Klaus Koch on bass and Günter “Baby“ Sommer on drums (once again I can only recommend Selbdritt on FMP). Schwerdt, Petrowsky and Lillinger finally met for the first time in 2006. In 2008 they recorded White Power Blues (Euphorium Records) and in 2009 they had a gig at the Leipziger Jazztage with two bassists (Barre Phillips and Michael Haves). Schwerdt, Petrowsky and Lillinger were pleased with the outcome and in 2011 they decided to continue their work as a quintet, only with Robert Landferman and John Edwards on the basses. Although Schwerdt (in this context he uses the moniker Elan Pauer) initiated the band, the focus is clearly on Petrowsky. He’s the link to the golden age of free jazz, his powerful style sputters off so authentically that according to Schwerdt he’s like “the lead singer in a pop group, always in the foreground of a specific sound space“. From the very beginning, Schwerdt planned to record the full monty, and albums like Tumult! and Krawall! are wonderful intermediate results. The following triptych is the last effort of this outstanding project.

The New Old Luten Trio - Radau! (Euphorium Records, 2017) ****

The trio of Schwerdt, Petrowsky and Lillinger refers back to the beginning of the original idea, a bass-less trio in the tradition of Cecil Taylor’s early Unit with Jimmy Lyons and Sunny Murray. Like the great role model, the trio dives pell-mell into music without metric boundaries, opening a lucky bag of possibilities. Schwerdt is a keyboard dervish, a magician of improvisation. Compared to White Power Blues his playing has become much more sophisticated and refined, more lyrical and percussive at the same time. He makes extensive use of clusters and parallel runs, that’s why the music is very dynamic. Petrowsky’s alto blares against the thunder of Schwerdt’s piano, he indicates the direction of where the improvisation goes. Around the 14-minute mark of “Letzter Radau!“, the only track on the album, Petrowsky throws in blues and bebop riffs just to come up even fiercer and more uncompromising. The whole improvisation is pushed by Lillinger’s drumming, Paul Lovens might be an influence here, especially the toms propel the music relentlessly. The album is another example of his enormous versatility, he’s just the most interesting drummer these days. The last four minutes surprise with a complete break - Petrowsky pulls out his flutes, the track becomes more world-music-like, Lillinger’s bells and Schwerdt’s prepared piano open the door to a different universe.

The New Old Luten Quintet - Rabatz! (Euphorium Records, 2017) ****½

With the addition of two basses (John Edwards and Robert Landferman) Schwerdt, Petrowsky and Lillinger dynamise harmonic dispositions in the improvisation and bow to albums like Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz and Cecil Taylor’s Unit Structures. By demonstrating enormous spontaneity and constructionism the quintet proves that the freedom of free jazz does not mean the complete absence of musical organization. The 46-minute “Letzter Rabatz!“ presents the band consciously selecting from a seemingly infinite pool of individual abilities to create musical structures that balance emotion and intellect, energy and form. The two basses are both elemental driving force and mysterious sound texture. The band embodies superhuman velocity and febrile delirium, they’re dissolving musical syntax while re-building it at the same time. Petrowsky ejects lines of a crude beauty and graceful ease. Like on Radau! the last part (about nine minutes) is cut off from the rest of the piece, now Petrowsky is mainly on the clarinet, the band gnarling in the background. Schwerdt puts in a wild barrage of thrillers, the piece swells and ebbs away. Petrowsky abruptly ends it with a single 35-second tone as if he was letting steam off a kettle. What a performance!

The New Old Luten Septet - Remmidemmi! (Euphorium Records, 2017) ****½

The extension to a septet was a side effect from a concert with Axel Dörner (trumpet) and Urs Leimgruber (sax) the following day. Schwerdt says that he was attracted by the idea of two powerplay saxophones for the band since it reminded him of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. He said that he had the idea of Leimgruber as a sort of effect machine for Petrowsky, but of course the Swiss saxophonist is much more than that. Remmidemmi! is different from the very beginning. It starts with a massive bass drone and prepared piano, another sound color is added to the brew, it’s an eerie but meditative note. Dörner's trumpet floats over this ocean of sound, the saxophones scribble into the track and give the command to raise intensity. Lillinger’s role is also different, he bows his cymbals, stressing the fact that the piece is more about sound than rhythm, it’s rather a cacophony of different voices. However, the piece also picks up certain elements from Rabatz! and Radau!, like the piano crescendos that prepare the ground for Petrowsky’s savage excursions. “Letztes Remmidemmi!“ drags itself through the mud, panting, gasping, heavily breathing, but also exuberant with enthusiasm. Once again, the last part is the quietest one, although Lillinger has a little solo here and the intensity is still high. Remmidemmi! is my favorite of this triptych.

Epilogue:

These albums are both conclusion and outlook. Unfortunately, it seems like they will be the last with Luten Petrowsky, since he’s really ill and might not be able to perform again (he’s 84 years old and had to undergo a difficult surgery last year). However, Peter Brötzmann replaced him for a gig in Leipzig (bassist John Eckhardt filled in for Robert Landferman) and Oliver Schwerdt said that at least this performance will be released. Maybe there’s even more to come.

Radau! is available as a mini CD, Rabatz! and Remmidemmi! are available on CD. You can buy all three albums from oliverschwerdt +at+ euphorium +dot+ de.

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Andrew Lisle & Alex Ward – Doors (Copepod Records, 2018) ****½

By David Menestres

Doors is the new album from the duo of drummer Andrew Lisle & clarinetist/guitarist Alex Ward. Lisle has been based in London for the last few years, Portugal for a couple of years prior to that, and performs with many people including John Dikeman, Dirk Serries, and Colin Webster. Ward has been active for a few decades performing with a wide variety of musicians including Derek Bailey, Simon H. Fell, Duck Baker, Eugene Chadbourne, and countless others. In addition, Ward is also the leader/co-leader of many groups under his own name as well as groups like Predicate, Forbrace, and Dead Days Beyond Help. Ward is probably the more familiar of the two to readers of this blog as a quick search returns over twenty results.

Doors is comprised of four tracks, all between sixteen and eighteen minutes. “Front” and “Open” are clarinet and drums, “Back” and “Closed” are electric guitar and drums. Ward’s clarinet sound is delicious, at times warm and lush, at others severe and spikey, like a bear pleased with himself for stealing honey from a hive, only to discover he has a stomach filled with angry bees trying to get out. His guitar sound is equally complex, from lush single note runs to screaming, distorted madness. Lisle’s drums are equally expansive, crisp and clean when called for, aggressive and angry when necessary.

“Front” opens the album, quickly establishing the dynamic: two musicians, engaged in the endless battle of listening and pushing each other forward. The single note guitar lines of “Back” eventually give way to crashing chords before devolving in slashes for noise. Lisle’s playing reminds me of the French term for percussion “batterie” which always makes me think of the English homonym “battery,” defined by the US Department of Defense as a “tactical artillery unit.” Lisle reigns down the destruction much like the US Military unfortunately does around the world.

“Open” has Ward returning to the clarinet, playing in an almost traditional sounding manner (or as close as Ward comes to the tradition, which is still fairly far from what most would consider traditional) up until about half way through the track when the duo begins to explore moments of intense quiet. “Closed” ends the album with the further exploration of the guitar/percussion duo.

Doors is a wild ride, highly recommended for anyone interested in creative improvised music. Doors is available as a digital download or CD. In an ideal world, this would make for a beautiful double vinyl release, but we all know what that costs versus what sales are like for this kind of music.

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John Edwards, Mark Sanders, John Wall - FGBH (Entr'Acte, 2017) ****

By Sammy Stein

In 2009 John Edwards, Mark Sanders ( Double bass, Drums respectively) were recorded by Paul Richardson at the Welsh Chapel, London. Now the recordings have been released as a CD, reworked and edited by John Wall.

The collaboration of musicians and a skilled computer editor means the listener gets the complete sounds distilled into around 20 minutes of music. The improvised music was originally 8 pieces A to H but the release comprises just four -F, G, B and H

'F' is intense, with the driving bass of John Edwards coupling very nicely with the percussive instrumentation of Mark Sanders, the electronic enhancement of the resonance giving the music a different and high energy life. At one stage the little pops and tinkles which feel introduced over and under the percussion seem out of place but suddenly, they make sense, challenging the ears just when the repetitive nature of the bass and drums was easing you into a sense of expectation – the timing is right and the overall impact is interesting and effective.

'G' begins with electronic rustles and is quickly joined by the percussive delights produced both by the body and strings of the bass and drums. John Edwards is well known for his full usage of every possible tone from the bass and here he excels with Mark Sanders picking the perfect antidotal percussive sounds. Adjusted and re-worked by the computerisation, this track is neither music nor noise in any sense of normality – an interesting track. The driving middle section where the strings thrum over a repeated drumming is particularly effective and tempered by a sudden quietness into which various sounds are pitched and thrown, creating and ever changing musical narrative.

'B' begins with a quietude which is misleading. The ticks and tocks from the percussion are over ridden soon enough by powerful and intricate electronic sounds, at one time travelling across from one side to the other, through the speakers like a wave, that wave carrying the listener towards a soundscape strange and yet engaging. There is stimulation into overload here and some complex painting is created by Mark Sander’s percussive decisions. This number is so textured, it feels physically alive – the electronics picking out and placing sounds into every conceivable space.

'H' again feels close up and personal, the musicians could be in front of you. It begins with heavy, grinding strings and echoes form deep within the body of the bass, electronic enhancements and additions increase the intense energy and high pitched bells sounds occasionally come to the fore – in a slightly irritating way. It feels as if the electronics literally surround the instruments here and it is a joyful moment when the drums and bass can be clearly heard. John Edwards has a lovely, resinous , graty style at times and uses the bass to create some ethereal and unusual sounds. Couple with Mark Sanders own dialect with the drums, these two make for a formidable pairing of improvisers. The track grows in texture and depth.

I have seen Mark Sanders perform and John Edwards has long been a musician whose work I enjoy. He came and played at the London Jazz Platform which I curated in London last June and whether solo or in a group he is always interesting.

This CD demonstrates the synergy between electronic sounds and those produced by actual instruments and with the careful use of the electronics so as not to distort or overwhelm they add rather than detract form the quality of the music. The commonality of the language of expressive sounds unites the three composers, whether they are handling something physically tangible or investigation sounds which can be created and added on a computer. There is a balance here which I perhaps was not expecting and I was glad to hear how electronics and musicians can work together to create sounds which are engaging and intriguing. In many ways the experimental and investigative quality of the electronics makes a great ally to the music of these improvisers because they are doing the same. This is surprising, inventive and engaging music with a power behind it that has nothing to do with electronics.

Personnel : Mark Sanders – percussion
John Edwards – Double bass
John Hall – Laptop
Mastered by Jacque Beliol

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Tyler Wilcox, Works for Two Chapels (Caduc, 2017) ****½

By Rick Joines

“But it was impossible to see too much. The less there was to see, the harder he looked, the more he saw. This was the point. To see what’s here, finally to look and to know you’re looking, to feel time passing, to be alive to what is happening in the smallest registers of motion.”
—Don DeLillo, Point Omega

When I first listened to Tyler Wilcox’s Works for Two Chapels, I was reading Don DeLillo’s spare, late, novel, Point Omega. Its opening section is narrated by a man who becomes obsessed watching Douglas Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho, which is projected onto a free-standing translucent screen, at two frames per second, in a small room in the MOMA. These three works of minimalist art, therefore, began to speak to each other about each other while I watched, read, and listened.

Each of these artists “sculpts time” within a specific space: a chapel, a gallery, a novel—all of which also exist in consciousness. Things that might escape the usual habits of our natural attitude take on heightened significance: textures of silence and human noise surrounding notes of music, the turn of a head, or a gesture of the hand. What is, and how we apprehend and think what is, alters as the pace slows. By alienating us from what we normally misperceive as “normal,” we begin to think what rarely gets thought.

Tyler Wilcox’s Works for Two Chapels has two tracks: the twenty-minute “Octet (for four trombones and string quartet)” and the twenty-three-minute “9.11.13.” The “Octet” is played in the Church of the Annunciation, Brooklyn, New York, by the Guidonian Hand Trombone Quartet (Mark Broshinsky, William Long, James Rogers, and Sebastien Vera) and the Ensemble Indexical (Rachel Golub and Mario Gotoh, violins, Victor Lowrie, viola, and John Popham, cello). “9.11.13” is played by Tyler Wilcox on the pipe organ in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents at Bard College, Annandale on Hudson NY. Developed as part of The Music for Contemplation series (https://www.mufoco.info/), Wilcox’s pieces contain a sustained note, or notes, whose attack and duration is determined by each player, each time. If one feels the need for an orienting comparison, the pieces fall somewhere between John Cage’s “4’33” and drone played on classical instruments. Uncredited players include those who, during the duration of the performance, contribute a variety of noises as integral as the playing—those who coughed, shifted their chairs, honked their horns, revved their car or bus engines, sounded storm alerts, and generally made the sorts of racket people are wont to make in the everyday course of life.

In the “Octet,” the sustained moments of silence of the musicians (amidst the noise of the world), begins to affect how we experience time. The music is suspended in time, time is suspended by the music, and it all takes on an element of nearly Hitchcockian suspense. The music is dense, then sparse, then absent, then, like the sun, it rises into harmony again. It is meditative, drifty, conceptual, abstract, and it is unwilling to assert an interpretation or reach a conclusion. While it is “music for contemplation,” contemplation does not necessarily imply something “peaceful.” This might be music nearly at a standstill, or composition of extended duration and subtle variation—a music of stasis—but besides implying stability, inactivity, or equilibrium, “stasis” always necessarily includes strife, for that momentary state of balance is achieved between forces equally opposed. Thus, buried deep in the archeology of this word στᾰ́σῐς is the memory of weighing, or the stance of a boxer, the position of a litigant, a dialectical argument of a philosopher, a seditious political faction, social division, radical dissent, a good party, and even a band. Within stillness, there is important motion.

Wilcox’s music is challenging because it creates a space within time to reveal consciousness. There is not much happening on the surface. What happens is internal, subterranean, at the level of thinking where thinking is unsure how to think in an age adrift in uncertainty, catastrophic terror, tragedy, danger, and rage.

In Point Omega, DeLillo writes, “It takes close attention to see what is happening in front of you. It takes work, pious effort, to see what you are looking at.” His characters are “mesmerized by this, the depths that were possible in the slowing of motion, the things to see, the depths of things so easy to miss in the shallow habit of seeing.” His novel, Gordon’s achingly slow rendition of Hitchcock’s film, and Wilcox’s music invite us to hear, see, and think about the phenomena of time, motion, and sound in ways that our conventional, workaday, manner misses. Listening to Wilcox reminds me most often of the moment in Point Omega where the characters stare across what seems like an infinite expanse of California desert—a place where nothing is—while talking and contemplating: “We sat out late, scotch for both of us, bottle on the deck and stars in clusters. Elster watched the sky, everything that came before, he said, there to see and map and think about.”

This is art about “time that precedes us and survives us.” It is worth your time.

Please listen to Works for Two Chapels, and purchase it here:




For other information about Tyler Wilcox and the Music for Contemplation Series see:

• http://www.brooklynartscouncil.org/artists/28270
• https://www.mufoco.info/
• http://newmusicworld.org/event/music-contemplation/
• https://www.newmusicusa.org/profile/tyler-wilcox/
• https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/music-for-contemplation/

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Two Ways of Using the Guitar: Thurston Moore and Loren Connors

Thurston Moore & Umut Caglar – Dunia (Astral Spirits, 2017) ***½

Loren Connors – Angels That Fall (Family Vineyard, 2017) ***½

By Daniel Böker

Two ways of using the guitar. I brought these two very different approaches together because there is a wide range of sounds and aspects that keep the guitar interesting, even after all these years. Maybe there is a connection to my own biography as a listener. First there was a-ha, I have to admit. Then there was the music my elder brother listened to, funk and soul. That had a great influence on me. But my next great influence, and that has never stopped was the sound of a guitar, and the fascination still sticks with me, always searching for new sounds. This brings me to the two albums here that I chose to write about.

First, Thurston Moore & Umut Caglar – Dunia. It is first and foremost a Thurston Moore album. An album as we know it. Just type his name in the search button on the Freejazzblog and you will find a whole bunch of reviews. That is because he is all over the place. He cooperated with almost all the 'big names' in the improvised music scene, and it is a pleasure to see or hear him play.

His sound, his way to treat and play his guitar is recognizable. That is with both his 'incarnations' with the song-oriented pieces with Sonic Youth and on his solo albums and with the improvized music, along with all the other 'heroes' like Mats Gustafsson, The Thing, Merbow, Joe McPhee, John Zorn, to name a few.

As I said his sound is recognizable, and this year for the first time I was bored, at least with his new solo album Rock'n'Roll Consciousness. I heard nothing new, nothing surprising. So I was a bit skeptical when I had the chance to review his collaboration with Umut Calgar. Would I meet just the same familiar sounds and structures?

On the one hand it is exactly that. It is, as I said in the beginning, a Thurston Moore album and following the question of what the guitar can sound like, Moore formed his answer years ago. He is in most parts refining the grammar and the vocabulary at this point, but he won't learn a new language.

While I listen to the album Dunia, I realize that it is not necessary to learn a new one. The one he is capable of is in this case sufficient to keep me listening with interest.

Caglar and Moore seem to speak the same language. (And from now on I will leave this image behind.) The two guitars fit together well.

The first track 'Kensaku' starts off with a lightness of sorts. The two guitars start with some high tones, some scratching over single strings and the more like that. That gives both players the opportunity to show their different sounds and their ways to play. As in a good movie (to pick another arbitrary image) you often know the end beforehand and the interesting question is how the protagonist will get there.

It is already clear in the beginning that the duo will reach a state of sheer noise and will build a so called wall of sound. And so they do. So the interesting question is, how will they get there? And in this respect they both do a good job. Especially with the first track.

The second track 'The Red Sun' is almost already there when it starts. Maybe it is too harsh to say that the variations in the wall of sound are not that big. I don't know how it feels to play such sounds. For me as the listener to this noise the power is very impressive but after a few minutes I realize that I am searching for changes. There are changes. of course, but the dominating impression it leaves with me is the power, the wall of sound, the end of the story without telling the beginning.

So Dunia is an album played in the language Moore developed throughout the years. It adds some words to it. And that is worth listening to it.

Second: Loren Connors – Angels that Fall. Connors on the other side chooses a completely different way of using the guitar. The album reviewed here is just a short detail of his output. Short because it is only one track of 17 minutes, a one-sided vinyl. And 'only' because it is one of his latest releases and we try to be as near to the present as possible with our reviews.

But writing about this album is also writing about Conners and I admit I like his sounds, his music a lot. It is a completely different and sometimes it sounds as if the guitar of Loren Connors was a total different instrument than the one Thurston Moore is playing. (I guess that is exactly what I've always liked about the guitar, it has an almost unending wide range of sounds and possibilities.)

There is a lot of echo on this album, also with other recordings Connors has released. There is a lot of echo and a lot of space. It is not silence exactly, but he has the time to wait for the next tone, the next sound, to add

There is a calmness to the music of Loren Connors that is almost unique. On Angels that Fall there is a constant swoosh of a background noise. Listening carefully you can hear him work his guitar. He uses the strings (of course) but also the corpus of the guitar. And he uses the silence in between.

Writing about all the calmness and silence it would be wrong if I created the impression of a slow or even boring album. (Album might be a huge word for just one track. This is actually one reason why I didn't rate it with four stars.)

Exactly that waiting for the next tone for the next thing to happen creates a great intensity. Near the end of the track there are percussion like sounds and the whole track gets louder and stronger, and then for a few last notes he changes the instrument and plays the piano with the same concentrated calmness he's played the guitar.

For sure Connors also has his own language he developed with and for his instrument. And with this language his sound is recognizable. But it is a total different language. He builds tension through calmness and it carries a dark notion with it sometimes.

His work is definitely worth a try.

And for me the guitar is still one of the most interesting instruments.

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