Doneda/Frangenheim

Crossland/Frangenheim
Basic Tracks – Baltimore New York
concepts of doing cd 010

Tales from two continents, these duo improvisations by veteran Berlin-based double bassist Alexander Frangenheim show off his organic responses when duetting with different horn players. Basic Tracks, Frangenheim, part of ensembles with Günter Christmann and others, is from two live concerts with Maryland trombonist Patrick Crossland, an academic who moves between improv and notated music. Murmuration St in contrast captures consistent free music interactions with French saxophonist Michel Doneda who has improvised with everyone from Lê Quan Ninh to John Russell, another Frangenheim associate.

With a technique that draws on both the proper and the unconventional, Crossland’s instrumental command allows him to almost instantly move from vocalized cries to portamento tonality. Half-valve ripples, canine yelps and angry air blown through the horn’s body tube are also brought into play. but balanced by mellow interludes. Responding in kind, the bassist’s timbral vibrations take in up-and-down spiccato strokes, shrill string abrasions as well as presto or andante positing strums and stops.

The duo’s climactic hub is reaching during the three tracks recorded at a Brooklyn record store. Buzzing brass slides and fluttering squeaks affiliated with bass string scratches soon give way to superfast triplet emphasis on Crossland’s part and pressurized multi-string vibrations and sul tasto rubs on Frangenheim’s. Following a set of trombone honks and woody bass smacks, interspaced with silences, the two settle on a measured dual drone. As the trombonist’s deep bore snarls continuously widen, the bassist’s speedy moves from top strings to bottom and vice versa create a fitting place for the final brass snarls and toots.

A different matter and recorded in a Berlin studio – over a two-year period, the six Doneda- Frangenheim tracks are unadulterated improvisations which emphasize the architecture of the instruments as well as technical variations and extensions.

Frangenheim’s sweeps and stops are as likely to include high-pitched almost violin-pitched tones as rugged col legno pops and sul tasto scrapes. Peeps, flutter tonguing and inner tube blows are part of Doneda’s strategies, but so are shrill squeals and inflating echoes. Single tones are emphasized by both players, but one-on-one interface is far more common. On “Formations” for instance the thick snarls that result from the saxophonist combining off-centre whistles and metallic strains from his horn are met with sprawling rubs and bow pressure from the bassist. That’s a repeated interlude, but there are also times when strained string squeaks and aviary trills are both so highly pitched that they’re virtually indistinguishable. Duck-like reed squawks and overblowing whorls are prominent along with buzzing string continuum as well.

However by the concluding “Singular Movements”, which actually aren’t, melodic asides which were suggested earlier inflate and become more intense. Combining extended reed doits and spetrofluctuation and rugged string smacks with wavering horizontal motions underlines the logic of cohesive free music without pushing it into conventionality. Doneda’s unaccented trill at the very end confirms this.

They may have been improvising on this fashion for many years, but these experienced free players demonstrate during each new meeting that there are many more processes left to discover.

–Ken Waxman
Track Listing: Basic: 1. UMBC 1st Set Part 1 2. UMBC 1st Set Part 2 3. Record Shop NY #1 4. Record Shop NY #2 5. Record Shop NY #3

Personnel: Basic: Patrick Crossland (trombone) and Alexander Frangenheim (bass)

Track Listing: Murmuration: 1. Logik Der Verausgabung 2. Expansion Sans Division 3. Formations 4. Synchronised Mirrors 5. Areas 6. Singular Movements

Personnel: Murmuration: Michel Doneda (sopranino and soprano saxophones) and Alexander Frangenheim (bass)