Barry Chabala/David Forland/Drew Gowran

Erhard Hirt/Klaus Kürvers/Dietrich Petzoid
Weiterbauen
Creative Sources CS 834 CD

Two trios on different continents work out engrossing sounds encompassing a guitarist and electronics. Outside of the obvious, each session is distinctive and also demonstrates that creative music can be heard in major centres as well as out of the way ones. In Berlin Weiterbauen offers nine studio recorded improvisations from three Teutonic veterans, guitarist and electronics manipulator Erhard Hirt. who has played with everyone from Hans Schneider to Hans Tammen; bassist Klaus Kürvers who has worked with the likes of Matthias Müller; and Dietrich Petzold, who has been  associated with musicians as different as Klaus Lenz and Ernesto Rodrigue, adds timbres from violin, tenor violin, clavichord and bowed metal. Almost 9,000 kilometres and an entire ocean and landmass away in much smaller Albuquerque, New Mexico was a live session, recorded at and named for the local  Juno café from Barry Chabala, who has played with Bonnie Jones and here adds objects, radio and iPhone pulses to his acoustic guitar; percussionist Drew Gowran, who has recorded with Ariel Kenyatta; and the laptop, EWI and live sampling of David Forlano, who worked with Toshi Makihara.

In the German capital, Petzold’s instrumental ambidextrous ability brings particular textures to various tracks with intermittent electronic patterning adding metallic shakes and processed oscillations to the mix. These contrast effectively with concentrated twangs, single note frails and string slides from Hirt and Kürvers’ thick bass stops. Some tracks are staccato and clunky based around  blunt finger picking with dobro-like reverberations and equivalent harsh fiddle squeaks and sul ponticello slices from the bassist. With ostinato low string drones preserved other tunes are more harmonic as upwards movement from stretched guitar and fiddle strings coalesces into a lyrical melody. For instance slurred guitar lines, violin slides and bass string thumps on “Testen” lead to a pinched exposition, expanded to presto in the top line as the lower pitched strings stay andante

Meanwhile the extended “Planen” opens up enough so that an exposition of echoing string whistles and jagged stops leads to a duet with strained fiddle slices and guitar power thumps, succeeded after that interlude with distinct and dissident vibrations from Hirt contrasted with spiccato violin slices. Voltage additions help squeeze the line into stop-time and tremolo affiliations with bass patterns underlining the narrative until the end.

Perhaps to emphasize a more natural surroundings, “Juno I” begins with bird songs and chirps, probably sourced from live samples. But as the four integrated tracks evolve, rural suggestions give way to industrial capacity. Laptop drones, reverberating drum ruffs with a hard backbeat and Mylar rubs and upward guitar flanges substitute punch for pastoral. Ironically though, perhaps because of the location, C&W, folk and conjunto inflections slip into Chabala’s acoustic guitar sequences.

More to the point the affiliations expressed on “Juno III” and “Juno IV” alternate the song-centric with the computerized and the electronic. Circular stop-time textures consisting of sledgehammer-strength drum cracks and cymbal pops, rugged guitar flanges and programed drones predominate with radio sourced voices and syrupy instrumental music snatches thickening the sound evolution. Rejecting miasma for melody, the three corral watery computer strains and stopped string pumps into linear evolution, while preserving power affiliations with backbeat drum smacks.

Curiously, percussion and programming may make the Albuquerque set session sound tougher and more strident than the improvisations recoded in much larger Berlin which is more acoustic. Yet both discs offer singular views of how decisive improvisations can be achieved.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Weiterbauen: 1. Verbinden 2. Verschränken 3. Erweitern 4. Planen 5. Testen 6.  Verwerfen 7. Ändern 8.  Ersetzen 9. Abreissen

Personnel: Weiterbauen:  Erhard Hirt (dobro, guitar and electronics); Klaus Kürvers (bass) and Dietrich Petzold (violin, tenor violin, clavichord and bowed metal)

Track Listing: Juno: 1. Juno I 2. Juno II 3. Juno III 4. Juno IV

Personnel:  Juno: Barry Chabala (acoustic guitar, objects, radio and iPhone); Drew Gowran (drums and percussion) and David Forlano (laptop, EWI and live sampling)