Agustí Fernández/Joe Morris/Charmaine Lee

Up for unexpected provocation two veteran players join with a vocal virtuoso for an inaugural session that moves them all from their comfort zones and into reflective and responsible sound coordination. Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández and Connecticut-based guitarist Joe Morris have over the years played with panoply of international improvisers from Evan Parker to William Parker, but rarely, if almost never with a vocalist. Meanwhile New York-based Charmaine Lee has probed the limits of vocal expression often augmented with electronics in duets with the likes of Nate Wooley and Conrad Tao, but seldom in larger ensembles.

While upfront electronic distortion isn’t a feature until later in the disc, the two instrumentalists begin lobbing dismembered timbres from the first track and continue through all five. Digging out rasping tones as often as he makes them whistle in higher frequencies, the pianist rubs and pulls his instrument’s inner string set while the guitarist plinks and pumps equally jagged runs. Evolving in triple counterpoint, Lee quivers microtonal gurgles and mewls from her throat and mouth. “Andesite”, featuring just Lee and Fernández, is separate from the trio tracks only because there’s more an emphasis on rhythm. Accentuating the wound metal properties of piano harp, action and pins with string ratchets and scrubs, Fernández cunningly joins Lee’s throaty vibrations and lip burbles. Capable of bel canto trills as well as dog-like animalistic pants and piercing howls, Lee avoid conversational-style mumbles until the final “Rhyolite”. Yet the culmination of the interface has her trading her lyrical soprano for shrill microtones that meld with Morris’ string scratches and the pianist’s string stops and plucks.

A realized experiment MAGMA attains its objectives as long as you understand that it should be regarded as a strictly instrumental session, eschewing conventional vocal expectations

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1, Magma 2. Basalt 3. Maglev 4. Andesite 5. Rhyolite

Personnel: Agustí Fernández (piano); Joe Morris (guitar) and Charmaine Lee (voice)