Arthur Rother / Chris Abrahams / Andrea Ermke / Marcello Busato

March 9, 2020

Sink

Mikroton CD 88

Philip Zoubek/Ivann Cruz/Marcin Witkowski

Radium

Helix LX 015

While all analytical musicians have been faced with adaptation to the widening impulses propelled by electronic currents for more than the past half-century, it’s committed improvisers who have used computer-related elements for the most compelling results. Avoiding the impasses of excessively segregated programming, noteworthy sessions result by coupling the properties of electric and acoustic instruments. Radium and Sink are in this lineage.

Experienced with kilowatt creativity, though mostly in other configurations, is the Berlin-based Sink quartet, which has functioned since 2004. It consist of Dutch guitarist Arthur Rother, who has worked with the likes of Andrea Neumann and Derek Shirley; Italian drummer Marcello Busato, who has played with Margareth Kammerer; Necks’ keyboardist, Australian Chris Abrahams; and most prominently, mini-disc/sampler controller Andrea Ermke, whose associates range from Jim Denley to Annette Krebs.

Acoustic sound deconstruction as well as electronic experimentation characterizes the first CD by Austrian pianist Philip Zoubek, French guitarist Ivann Cruz and drummer Marcin Witkowski, each of whom prepares his instrument in distinctive ways. Cruz is part of La Pieuvre and TOC; Zoubek plays with the likes of Carl Ludwig Hübsch and Pierre-Yves Martel; while Pole Witkowski has been part of the Las Rzecy band,

Although Sink members don’t throw everything but the kitchen appliance into it, their program is based around the textures brought to the foreground by guitar pings and drum rumbles while the juddering backing arises from the DX7’s organ power approximation as programmed minidiscs provide an underlying layer of drones coupled with field recording sounds. Some Necks-like timbre hypnotics are present in the extended sequences are more intense, yet they’re broken up into patterns. Furthermore, Rother’s echoing twangs and occasional menacing frails introduce hard Rock and folk-like echoes to the agenda. Should motifs become overly pressurized, cymbal accents or other instrumental interjections relax the challenge.

Most characteristic of the quartet’s tracks are the extended “Little Did We Know” and “Waking Up after a Long Day Part 2”. The first moves on from an unrelenting continuum of computer buzzes, electrified keyboard oscillations to an exposition loose enough that Abrahams seems to be riffing on “Light My Fire” or an early Soft Machine track. Distinctive dissonance is maintained however with Busato’ polyrhythms, accelerating string slices from the guitarist and fitful granular synthesis mixed with what sounds like rubbing balloon squeaks. A similar underlying pulse on “Waking Up after a Long Day Part 2” is prevented from being unbending by Rother’s single-string theme variations and feedback that affiliate with cross ruffs from the drummer and synthesizer timbral jiggles. Having resolved the contradictions, the quarter finishes with a track that dissolves overbearing rail-crossing-like noise into defining stasis.

Propelling their strategies over nine tracks, the trio members on Radium also rely on clustering clatters, rubs and sprawls that arc through programmed sputters but are finally balanced between electronic output and acoustic inner piano-string stops. The defining track would be the over 12½-minute “Tungsten” which is almost as fracture resistant and even less prone to melting than the metal for which it is named. Meshed to the extent that the extended vibrations can’t be attributed to any one of the instruments, the sequence is also synthesized so that background and foreground are negated. Soon however chirping pulses curve and diminish into spiraling, slinky toy-like repetition that scrapes and scratches to a singular climax.

Other than that, aural color fields are enlivened with tinctures of both acoustic and electronic timbres. A track like “Xenon”, for instance, makes its point via prepared piano stops, guitar strokes, bell-tree peals and drum echoes. It is finally resolved when guitar string stabs reflect back on the theme. Meanwhile other pieces such as “Lithium” are almost completely machine-driven as characteristic drones escalate while repeated crinkles and clatters circle in such a manner that nothing but pure electronics can be heard. The title track resolution showcases both sets of impulses as ring modulator-like strokes alternate with drum clatters until a concluding thematic dialogue is advanced as the piano narrative is decorated with guitar strums.

Whether purportedly honoring an appliances or metals, these bands confirm how electro-acoustic elements can be harnessed to become a varied sound experience.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Sink: 1. Waking Up after a Long Day Part 1 2. Little Did We Know 3. Late to the Party 4. Waking Up after a Long Day Part 2 5. Epilogue (Hidden Track)

Personnel: Sink: Arthur Rother (guitar); Chris Abrahams (dx7); Marcello Busato (drums) and Andrea Ermke (mini discs, mixing board)

Track Listing: Radium: 1. Astatine 2. Selenium 3. Thallium 4. Cobalt 5. Xenon 6. Tungsten 7. Rhodium 8. Lithium 9. Radium

Personnel: Radium: Philip Zoubek (prepared piano and analog synthesizer); Ivann Cruz (primed guitar and electronics) and Marcin Witkowski (extended drums and electronics)