Joshua Trinidad / Mia Zabelka / Arun Natarajan / Icostech / Gámez aka Asférico

Designed to demonstrate Mia Zabelka’s dexterity as a conceptualizer, Aftershock links the Vienna-based violinist/composer with Bangalore bassist/guitarist and sound mixer, who also goes by the names Icostetch and N Arun. Added to the program on two crucial tracks is US trumpeter Joshua Trinidad. What results is session unlike Zabelka’s other work, more in the realm of drone-ambient than the expected improvised or notated music.

Here violin playing isn’t even upfront until “Trapped|Rumination”, eighth of the 10 tracks. Stretching out, her spicatto slashes, multiple stops, woody strokes and pizzicato plucks are mixed with vocal slurs. Other than that, emphasis seems to be on production and sound mixing with electronic processing, synthesized whooshes and reverb and flutters predominating. Icostetch-created fluid and repetitive ostinati also include bell-ringing, percussion backbeats and ruffs as well as guitar flanges, buzzes and shudders. Taking off from Nordic ambience, Trinidad’s brassy smears move across the sound field. Near motion suspension characterize the sound washes from the trumpeter’s capillary processing. Eventually his muted tone skimming also intersects with vocal gargling and an undulating metallic rhythm. A mid-session watery “Interlude” of guitar and bass is reminiscent of 1960s psychedelic jam band sounds, and it takes chugging rhythm guitar and solid drum ruffs to bring back a feeling of sentience.

Although the program terminates with ghostly echoes, most of the final “Biblotheque|The Final Stop” is livelier. There’s enough programmed refraction and shrieking vocals fed through delay mode to confirm it as sound experimentation if not resolution.

Related to Northern European sessions where texture is paramount, Aftershock fits snugly within the genre. Still those who relate to Zabelka other work and unique string improvising may want to head elsewhere.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Prelude to Shock 2. Colliding Indigenous forms|Shock 3. The Train to Nowhere 4. Recurring Conundrums* 5. Circadian Disrupt/Revisiting Narcolepsy* 6. Interlude# 7. Aftershock 8. Trapped|Rumination 9. The Train to Nowhere|The Next Stop 10. Biblotheque|The Final Stop

Personnel: Joshua Trinidad (trumpet)*; Mia Zabelka (violin, voice and electronics); Icostech [Arun Natarajan] (guitar, bass guitar, percussion and mix); and Gámez aka Asférico (synthesizer and mix)# and N. Arun (bass)#