Three from Betwixt & Between

Quinie / Jacken Elswyth

Betwixt & Between 4

UK  Betwixt & Between  no number  Cassette/DL  (2019)

Excellent unsolicited surprise arrival through the letterbox here.  And on cassette too, today’s favoured format of the avant-garde.  A split release, so a side each for Glasgow based Quinie, accompanied by friends Gordon Bruce and Tom Merewether and Betwixt & Between head Jacken Elswyth who resides in London.  Elswyth and her cohorts are part of a growing movement gaining a reputation for continuing the folk tradition.  Any folk music scholar/enthusiast will probably tell you how the songs have been and should be passed down through time, with no proscribed limits on interpretation per se, thus keeping the tradition alive, current and relevant.  This, I suspect, is an important part of Elswyth’s motivation.  She’s also an excellent banjo player, as evidenced here.

On the other side of the tape, Quinie sings songs “…embellished with occasional bells, whistles and percussion interspersed with odd interludes of reedy drone”  These drones are fantastic - not at all in a “ambient/dark/moody” kind of way; more playful and upbeat and possibly played with good humour on reed-based instruments associated with traditional Scottish music, I suspect.  I was not 100% sure whether Quinie is the name of the band or an alias of the singer/artist Josie Vallely until I turned up Vallely’s website where she states “…I have a personal practice under the name Quinie that brings together my interest in Scots song, sense of place and an investigation of women’s representation in the Scottish Tradition”. Of the six tunes here, half are songs by Matt McGuinn (“Red Yoyo”), Duncan MacRae (“Wee Cock Sparra”) and Lizzie Higgins, (“Wha’s at the Windy”).  Vallely’s delivery is captivating and the weird musical attenuations lend proceedings a mysterious feeling.  Really beautiful stuff.

Alula Down / Jacken Elswyth

Betwixt & Between 5

UK  Betwixt & Between  no number  CD/DL  (2019)

This is sent from Betwixt & Between’s Jacken Elswyth, here presenting her amazing banjo-picking skills - “clawhammer” I believe might be the accurate terminology, but I stand to be corrected if I’ve completely misunderstood the term - and in keeping with the B&B series, alongside four songs from Hereford-based Alula Down, a duo of Kate Gathercole and Mark Waters who do a nice line in gently delayed acoustic guitar and drone-making harmonium, glass harmonica (one of my all-time favourite instruments to listen to - check out also sound artist Camille Norment's recent work) and “gentle feedback” better to accompany the singer’s voice with.  Both artists’ approach are based in the folk idiom - an area of music I think I should mention I know very little about - in fact, they both present versions of a traditional (the one Peter Bellamy recorded in the 1970s?) song called “Sweet Lemeny” but with very different results.  Elswyth also uses a drone as an accompaniment, the exact nature of which is not stated on the cassette sleeve, but reading through the text on the B&B Bandcamp site it appears to be bowed banjo.  “Last Chance set”, my favourite of her three pieces is a range of extrapolations of the Appalachian dance tune.

Aside from their version of “Sweet Lemeny”, Alula Down contribute three bird-themed songs, “Sprig of Thyme”, “Three Ravens” and “Blackbird”.  The acoustic guitar on “Sprig of Thyme” is processed ever so lightly with echo, making not an eerie sound, but producing a very bright and active clarity.  On “Sweet lemeny” a repeated series of plucked harmonics shifting the guitar into otherworldliness by way of filtering or eq-ed overdrive, while Gathercole’s vocals are treated with subtly ever increasing tape echoes creates a sublime result.  The duo’s use of feedback, harmonium and glass harmonica on “Three Ravens” is similarly effective, paired as they are with Gathercole’s close-mic’ed, intimate vocal.  “Blackbird” pushed the guitarist right towards the back of the room, it seems, while gradually letting the sounds of the fields outside the walls of the studio back in.

Ryan Eyers / Jacken Elswyth

Betwixt & Between 6

UK  Betwixt & Between  no number  Cassette/DL  (2020)

Since receiving B&B numbers #4 and #5, I have received #6 and randomly met Jacken Elswyth in person at a TST (record stall) pop-up at the Evening Star in Brighton thus putting a face to this excellent series of releases.  Jacken‘s side begins with a seven minute rendition of Jon Bekoff’s “Lone Prairie”.  The tune is cyclical and Elswyth adds drones which almost segue into the start of the following song, “Caravan” by Mark Stevenson.  Stevenson is a contemporary figure in the British folk scene

In “Improvisation for amplified banjo(29.3)” Elswyth bucks tradition by utilizing probably something as simple as a transducer or contact mic on the banjo through the nearest guitar amp.  But what a sound!  Clouds of upper harmonics and the abstracted character of the set-up made the instrument unrecognisable to me in the opening moments.  This piece affected me in a similar way as did Rhodri Davies’ processed harp recordings on Wound Response from 2012.  The joy of hearing the unexpected; the reversal of what the instrument was designed to be.  The world swings back on its axis for the two and a quarter minutes of acoustic “Improvisation for banjo (30.1)”.

On Ryan Eyers’ side we are treated to five “short sketches” of solo drumming on what to my ears seems to be a jazz-style full kit.  Unusual as solo kit drum recordings may be, this work serves as more than just an introduction to Eyers’ skills or some kind of showcase simply to generate future employment.  Perhaps referencing the recent prevalence of online “sample-packs” by certain synthesiser enthusiasts, Eyers sees it as much a resource as a finished work.  The pieces certainly sound great - facilitated by someone who knows how to mic up a drumkit; perhaps Eyers himself?  Named as sketches, these three-something minute pieces are exactly that, and thus surely that is their nature.  The first piece serves as a kind of ritual beginning to proceedings - setting the scene, settling the mind, focussing the body.  The minimalist development of “Sketch 2” reminds me of Nissenenmondai’s singleminded sticksperson Sayaka Himeno, but Eyers puts far more variation into these three minutes than Himeno usually does.  “ Sketch 3” is a full-tilt syncopated riot, Andy Ramsay-like but without any convoluted motorik.  I can imagine it as the backbone to a Stereolab-influenced piece by someone somewhere.  “Sketch 4” is an absorbing journey into repetition and melody, which flows neatly into “Sketch 5” utilizes tuned toms and hi-hat exclusively to produce something between Afrobeat and The Butthole Surfers.

I suspect physical editions of items in this series are and will be made available in tiny editions, but the good news is all seem to be available as digital downloads alongside previous items B&Bs 1-3.  For further folk edification, see the Bancamp site.  A fine - in both senses of the word - strand of the current doings in the UK folk idiom.

  www.betwixtbetweentapes.bandcamp.com

Distant Animals - Everyday Violence

Distant Animals

Everyday Violence

Germany  Engram Recordings  ER34  DL  (2020)

An ep length chunk of analogue synthesis in the form of three pieces each roughly six and a half minutes in duration from this Lewes in Sussex-based creator, Daniel Alexander Hignell.

Minimal opener New Youth opens up creases in the crumpled space-time continuum.  Buried below the surface humus are noises computers made in the 1970s, whirring as nebula fly by and the back of your head sinks almost imperceptibly into the moistening peat as the heavens open once again.  There are hints at waves of hidden meaning; Distant Animals work with subsonic and ultrasonic composition, probably.  How is it made?  Perhaps with the corpulently flightcased modular synthesiser apparatus he used at an Aural Detritus concert in Brighton in 2016 likely in combination with nefarious dark-web music software in new and unexpected ways?  Toward the end of the piece I can discern a kind of bit-crushed house rhythm or sped-up dub techno pulse; out of sorts with my expectation of the track.  Good.

L’histoire annotee des processus emergents (or The Annotated History of Emerging Processes)

Analogue bubbling, network machine-room cooling systems breath deeply.  Emergency neon.  A distillation of sci-fi movie soundtrack opulence.  Tones emerge and disappear for maximum headphone joy.  Like a bubbling tarpit.  Chunky.

All three pieces seem to be built out of sounds that exist on the very edge of human auditory range, so the music seems to be quiet; and the third piece, Everyday Violence exists within the listener’s particular physical environment and influences and is influenced by it in turn.  Separate listens at different volume settings have yielded very different experiences for me.  Today, at a reasonable volume, I’m listening to the beginning of this piece merge with the regular pulse of the neighbours’ builder’s cement mixer outside, whereas I was aware of a more pronounced high-end detail in this piece late last night at a more modest amplitude.  Synthesiser drone emerge presently to delineate the overall structure.  The piece ends with a crescendo which is cleverly emphasised by the relatively low perceived volume of the majority of the material.  It benefits from the extra emphasis after the close listening demanded by the preceding majority of the work.  

Also see his Death Keeps Me Awake from 2019 also on Engram, Lines and Weaves / Threads on Hallow Ground from 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Engram is based in Berlin, the spiritual home of forward-looking electronic music.  So far, in this year’s batch of releases are: a one minute and five second track from Male Dynamics, an album of pretty electronica from Oriental Love, an album from Adam Majdecki-Janicki that features a track superbly titled “This Planet Is A Penal Colony And Nobody Is Allowed To Leave”, post-harsh noise from MMRK, Yang Liu’s piano movement Rain Air II and a sonified sense of nostalgia by Hsiao Li Chi among other intriguing things.

Clearly they take their mission statement “N. Senada's "Theory of Obscurity" states that an artist can only produce pure art when the expectations and influences of the outside world are not taken into consideration” very seriously.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, as Wikipedia states; “There is a debate as to whether or not Senada actually existed, or was simply an invention of [the band] The Residents”.  Despite this, the label is absolutely worth your time exploring.

https://engramrecordings.bandcamp.com/

five from Astral Spirits

Pat Thomas / John Butcher / Ståle Liavik Solberg
Fictional Souvenirs
USA Astral Spirits MF191/AS088 CD (2019)

UK musicians pianist Pat Thomas and saxophonist John Butcher team up with Norwegian drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg. I’m always in the mood for anything John Butcher-related; the recent Tarab Cuts vinyl issue with Mark Sanders and the Skullmarks cd by Butcher’s project Common Objects are both worth your immediate attention. And so is Fictional Souvenirs. That this trio also features Pat Thomas who is part of Common Objects is of interest. Where his contribution to Skullmarks was cited simply as “electronics”, here his input is detailed a touch more accurately as “Moog Theremini & iPad-based electronics”. As you might suspect, a Moog Theremini is a small theremin-type electronic instrument, but with the advantage of an added Moog-designed synthesis capability. Thus the sounds Thomas conjures from this device are anything but the 1950s sci-fi noises you might associate with the original theremin instrument. Ståle Liavik Solberg and Butcher have both released material on the respected Clean Feed Records out of Lisbon, Portugal. Based in Oslo, Solberg co-curates the Blow Out! Festival with Paal Nilsen-Love and performs with the quartet Will It Float? with London improvisors John Russell, Steve Beresford and John Edwards. Pat Thomas currently is known for his solo piano work with Duke Ellington material, but also has a free-improvising trio, Shifa, and Ahmed; a quartet with Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip and Seymour Wright inspired by the music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik. Thomas has also played with Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley’s Quartet and in duo with Lol Coxhill. Theirs is a very playful approach on Fictional Souvenirs, less free-jazz more exploratory improvisation. But without warning, the musicians flip the music on its head. Parts of “Heartaches” for example are really very minimal and benefit from an almost-there sense of propulsion. I am reminded of the minimalsm of Diatribes’ recent album Echoes and Sirens. “The Solution” is a dynamic ten minute journey where the synthesised sounds of Pat Thomas’ Theremini come to the fore. One of the most beautiful electronic passages I have heard this year comes from Thomas’ set-up at the very end of the closing track, “Keys”. This is a live recording made in concert at London’s wonderful I’Klektik venue by Giovanni La Rovere split into six pieces and, thanks to high-speed internet connections, mastered by Alan Jones at Laminal Audio in the USA.

Rodrigo Amado / Chris Corsano
No Place To Fall
USA Astral Spirits MF207/AS103 CD (2019)

“Full tilt” tenor saxophonist is joined by the in-demand free drummer of choice. “Announcement” is just that - a full-on no holds barred, full frontal assault. Clichés aside, we all know what Corsano is capable of in terms of sheer speed, force and integrity and Rodrigo Amado keeps the pace up; more than that - the pair seem locked together in a breakneck trajectory towards the unknown. “Dont Take It Too Bad” inhabits a calmer place, beginning as a quiet and contemplative soundfield before ramping up the tension. In fact, it seems to me that this is what drives many duos - the tension created almost becomes a physical entity separate from the two players themselves. “Into The Valley” demonstrates a demarcation; a devolution of the sonic space. What this duo also demonstrate is a total familiarity; that vague notion of “telepathy” between players who have either spent a significant amount of time in each others’ worlds or who have miraculously spontaneously “clicked” on first meeting. The solemn beginning of “We’ll Be Here In The Morning” harks back through jazz history to the sound (or reminiscence of) Charlie Parker. Apart from pleasing jazz “purists” - if such a creature even exists anymore - the fact that Corsano waits three minutes before joining in with gentle pattering accompaniments shows the degree of mutual respect these musicians hold for each other. Burton Greene / Damon Smith / Ra Kalam Bob Moses Life’s Intense Mystery USA Astral Spirits MF193/AS090 CD (2019) Piano trios are fun. The first thing that should be said is that apart from Damon Smith’s credentials and mixing and mastering by Weasel Walter, there is very little “punk rock” about this album, just in case seeing Walter’s name on the sleeve might have got your hopes up. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but Weasel Walter is a super-dynamic player; that’s one thing the album lacks slightly for me - perhaps they should have let him sit in on a couple of numbers, for the sake of variety if nothing else. Ra Kalam Bob Moses started his prolific career with the mighty Rahsaan Roland Kirk and went on to play with Larry Coryell, Gary Burton, one-time Miles Davis cohort Dave Liebman, and Pat Metheny among many others as well as releasing multiple albums as bandleader. Burton Greene also has an interesting early career having co-founded the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble with Alan Silva, played with Patty Waters, Sam Rivers and Albert Ayler among others and released two solo albums on ESP-Disk in the 1960s. Since then he splits his time working from his Amsterdam base and in New York and the East Coast of the US. More recently he has had his work released on John Zorn’s Tzadik. Damon Smith has worked a lot with Weasel Walter and runs his own label, Balance Point Acoustics and has previous form with Cecil Taylor, Elliot Sharp, Peter Brötzmann, Marshall Allen and Jim O’Rourke. There are three parts of “Life’s Intense Mystery” spread over the disc; free, yes, but with one toe still in the lukewarm water of melody. Which is altogether fine if that’s your bag, although personally I enjoy a bit more sound-making than melodic information in my free playing. That said, some of the melodic ideas elsewhere are making me scratch my head - it’s particularly rudimentary on “Kid Play” but then I guess that’s the point with that one. Track four “Perc-Waves (or Percussive Waves)” is my favourite area, where the trio really relax and explore some territory. It’s got balls, while simultaneously coming off eerie and weird.

Harris Eisenstadt Old Growth Forest
II
USA Astral Spirits MF196/AS093 CD (2019)

Drummer and composer of this music Harris Eisenstadt is joined by trombonist Jeb Bishop, saxophonist Tony Malaby and bassist Jason Roebke. Eisenstadt is a Canadian musician who has worked with Wadada Leo Smith and Vinny Golia, Sam Rivers and Adam Rudolf, Ellery Eskelin and Angelica Sanchez and the UK double-bassist Dom Lash. He currently leads two other ensembles; Canada Day with Matt Bauder, Nate Wooley, Chris Dingman and Eivind Opsvick and Guewel with Wooley again, Taylor Ho Bynum, Mark Taylor and Josh Sinton. Eisenstadt has also produced eight compositions at the time of writing. Just a small selection of his activities there. Jeb Bishop is a veteran of the Vandermark Five, Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet, Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra and his own Jeb Bishop Trio. Tony Malaby describes himself as “...a tenor saxophonist in modern creative and post-bop jazz”. He has been prolific in his recorded output, playing with musicians including Tom Rainey, Rob Mazurek and Chad Taylor, Mat Maneri and many others. Jason Roebke has worked with Paul Lytton and Josh Berman on Trio Discepancies also on Astral Spirits, also in trio with Tim Barnes and Nate Wooley, as well as with Eisenstadt and Bishop on their trio recording Tiebreaker from 2008. The music on II was recorded live at The Parlor Room in Northampton Massachusetts by Jared Libby in June of 2017. “Needles/Seedlings” has an unexpectedly jaunty melody that only makes an appearance halfway through. Once the group get their teeth stuck in, they run with it like a territorial pitbull with an unsuspecting chihuahua in its jaws. “Rustling” is the aural equivalent of wet pigment running down a fresh canvas. “Pit and Mound” swings with a bitter-sweet melody that graciously gives way to pure sound and back again. Where “Nurse Logs” is sweaty and agitated, “Biomass” has a vaguely Latin feel that took me by surprise, while the opening minute of “Shaded Canopy” is like a slowed down New Orleans street band. The audience duly clapping in the appropriate places. “Song With Owen” meanders in a pleasant way; Malaby and Bishop echoing each other’s parts bringing us out of the forest and into the sunlight.

Shiroishi / Golia / Fujioka / Cline
Borasisi
USA Astral Spirits MF205/AS101 CD (2019)

Here we have an unusual quartet presenting two adventurous pieces from saxophonists Patrick Shiroishi and Vinny Golia, and drummers Dylan Fujioka and Alex Cline at an October 2018 session at Seahorse Sound Studios in Los Angeles. Shiroishi has multiple projects on the go including Upsilon Acrux, Corima, In The Womb, Oort Smog and Hoboglyphs. As well as leading his own ensembles, Vinny Golia has worked with a broad range of musicians including Anthony Braxton, Henry Grimes, Joëlle Léandre, John Zorn, Patti Smith and Lydia Lunch. Dylan Fujioka is an LA based drummer and composer whose recorded output thus far, as far as I can make out, covers both jazz improv and “ambient” electronica. Alex Cline’s first record - with Jamil Shabaka - was released in 1977 and since then he has performed with many group with Yusuf Lateef, Miya Masaoka, Gregg Bendian, Susan Rawcliffe and many others including his trio Spiral with Brian Horner and his brother Nels. The first track of this pair, “Right Eye Sun”, is evidence of a seemingly fairly straight-ahead melodic approach while “Left Eye Moon” is considerably more what you might call ‘out there’, whatever that means these days. Possibly there is a right brain/left brain analogy going on here, but I could be reading too much into it. Certainly, “Left Eye Moon” is the more curious of the pair. I’d hesitate to go as far as to call it “astral” jazz, but its going in that direction; restraint, space, unhurried, with extended technique and interesting ideas - the pairing of the instruments offers a lot of intriguing options - and it gets raucous as well. There is more to catch the ear on this piece, for sure. But for me it remains a little polite; it somehow never gets near to the visceral. The recording quality is “polite” as well; everything has been recorded “correctly” - in a technical sense - it could benefit from a bit more chaos somewhere in my opinion.

All five of these discs fall within the remit of jazz, but Astral Spirits is not an exclusively “jazz” label as I first thought. They have also released electronic music from the likes of Jeff Lane aka Tereshkova, music based on the sounds made by electric eels (no really) by the fantastic Rob Mazurek of Chicago Underground Duo/Trio/Quartet, and modern-day fusion from Quin Kirchner. Jazz afficionados are amply catered for with music from Hamid Drake, Otomo Yoshihide, Trevor Watts, Chicago Underground Quartet, Ilia Belorukov, Lisa Cameron & Sandy Ewen and many more. Astral Spirits is also prolific; possibly due to the generosity of parent label Monofonus Press, with over forty new titles in the last 6 months since I received this unsolicited batch in the mail. That’s an almost Mikroton-like schedule. The sleeve design links all the titles together nicely, in the form of intriguing and colourful paintings by Jaime Zuverza.

https://astralspirits.bandcamp.com/