Earth Tongues

Natsuki Tamura & Jim Black
NatJim
Libra Records 102-074

Ambient or atonal affiliations are the choices illuminated by these distinct CDs, with spartan improvisations making equally compelled arguments for each. While Earth Tongues’ fourth disc is actually by a trio, the lower-case intricacies explored on it are more muted in pitch and tempo than the clamorous textures by the duo on NatJim. Experienced New York improvisers Earth Tongues members are trumpeter Joe Moffett, tubaist Dan Peck and percussionist Carlo Costa, who collectively have worked with the likes of Harris Eisenstadt, Frantz Loriot and Philippe Lauzier. Meanwhile the NatJim duo consist of veterans who have played together in large and small ensembles and whose last duo disc was 25 years ago, Japanese trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, known for his partnership with Satoko Fujji, and American drummer Jim Black, who has worked with Ellery Eskelin and many others.

Recorded in a Brooklyn backyard, Anemone is a set of concentrated sequences by the three musicians, spelled by frequent interludes of reverberation from the surroundings including the buzz of passing traffic and the burble of city life. Weaving together tuba growls, trumpet smears and drum clatter, it often seems as if the length of the musical interludes is determined by the brass players’ portamento breaths. Despite the microtonal affiliations, transformative identities are also establish through Peck’s growling wallows, Moffett’s grace notes and bugling upsurges and Costa’s sporadic pings, slaps, taps and cymbal swishes. About one-third of the way along one climax is reached as percussion shuffles and ascending trumpet triplets get louder. These are affiliated with toneless air blown through the tuba which expands to a rumbling ostinato. Interludes of traffic noises alternate with more instrumental elaborations which move among brass stings, drum rolls and tuba bellows. Yet the narrative remains captivating as each players pivots to distinct motifs such as low-pitched hollow snarls from Peck, vocalized plunger cries from Moffett and Costa’s shakes and resonation from additional idiophones and bells. Affiliated, thickened and vibrating the joint outpouring subsequently and expressively dissolves into soundlessness.

Meanwhile there are multiple crescendos and climaxes on NatJim’s eight tracks, with the themes and tones as lusty as the narrative on the other disc is low key. Tamura mostly spends time hurdling from plunger growls to bugling overblowing and growling triplets, as Black maintains a pulse with drum smacks and pops enhanced with idiophone shakes, rattles and crackles. At times though Black become a little too overzealous in his rumbles and rim shots.

As well as separating their improvisations among eight tracks, Tamura and Black resonate their interaction at speedy or slow tempos and with harsh or delicate timbres, often during the same track. They’re flexible enough on a track like the concluding “Bonus” to showcase an arc of brassy smears and puffs with percussion paradiddles or on “Noisy City”, to allow Tamura’s strained squeals and cries to fragment into projected toneless air as Black’s rugged paradiddles maintain the pulse.

But the greatest difference are tracks like “City Of Night” and “Calm City”. Here the trumpeter digs deep into his horn’s innards to source smears, slurs and puffs,  then adds approximations of yelps, gurgles, snores and retches. These vocal gymnastics are simultaneously reminiscent of samurai warrior cries and lunatic ravings. Arriving spontaneously they add new challenges to the exposition preserved by Black’s distant shakes and rumbles on the second tune. On “City Of Night” however they solidify discordant verisimilitude to a track already unique. This is where Tamura’s pivots from brass squeaks and smears into a deconstruction of “Happy Birthday”, then into protracted puffs and whooshes until the entire interface is finally rightened by the drummer’s responsive patterning.

Unconventional but convincing, the fundamental point of both discs lies in not seeking a definite summations but by tracing how various parts fit together for ongoing fascination.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Anemone: 1. Anemone

Personnel: Anemone: Joe Moffett (trumpet); Dan Peck (tuba) and Carlo Costa (percussion)

Track Listing: NatJim: 1. Morning City 2. Afternoon City 3. City Of Dusk 4. City Of Night 5. Quiet City 6. Noisy City 7. Calm City 8. Bright City 9. Bonus

Personnel: NatJim: Natsuki Tamura (trumpet) and Jim Black (drums)