CD – Creative Sources Recordings – CS 794, Lisbon 2023
Reviews
A sprightly studio date from the Creative Sources barn, with all the pop crackle and scrape you'd expect from the particulars. These eleven sound paintings are all relatively brief and seemingly sparse, even when the quartet is clearly trying to develop a ruckus. Such is the nature of acoustic instruments then. Sax tones dovetail nicely into the harmonic saw of the strings, with occasional dropped cymbals or quick-witted thumps. They very quickly set up what's known in the business as "the hover", a musical tactic akin to those old photographs of Salvador Dali and the cats in mid-air. There are unfastened shutters banging amid far away birdsong, collective fluttering, and more than one short soiree begins with a game of 52 pick-up. (Once thought of as a nuisance practical joke, that's turned out to be a fascinating exercise. Because why not?) Some of these pieces are so quiet as to be barely there. Mere suggestions of activity, and all the more interesting for it.
There are also bits wherein it seems likely that there are more than four instruments involved, and a definite tang of telepathy hangs over everything. How do they know when to stop? If the third mind principal enlivens any duo of like-minded cohorts, what of a quartet? Here are a collection of cautious answers to that question, and a perfect way to spend a Sunday morning. Jeph Jerman (The Squid's Ear)
