Mark Solborg Tungemål

TL; DR
Too Long; Didn’t Read
Earshift Music EAR 109

Two quartet discs built around trumpet and guitar textures ascribe new meanings to low key. But in more than geographic distance the two sessions are divided in how best to express ideas. Confluencia is part of a long running chamber jazz scenario from Danish guitarist Mark Solborg which deals with the microtonal confluence among acoustic instruments and in this case is titled after 17^th Century drawings which illustrated the symbiosis that created better living conditions. Moving up to the 21^st Century, Too Long; Didn’t Read is Australian trumpeter Peter Knight’s electroacoustic project linking drum beats, overdubbed vocals and suspended airy brass sequences into a hypnotically evolving whole.

Featured on Confluencia are Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva; Danish keyboardist Simon Toldam and Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach, all of whom has extensive international improv experience, with Solborg himself having worked with everyone from Evan Parker to Anders Banke. Slightly lesser know, the Aussie crew includes Knight, formerly A.D, of the Australian Art Orchestra; bassist/vocalist Helen Svoboda who has recorded with Erik Griswold; and two younger players, guitarist Theo Carbo and drummer Quinn Knight.

To be honest either by design, accident or preference, Quinn Knight, the trumpeter’s son, mostly maintains an unvarying, bordering on plodding beat during the four tracks, only turning to more focused rat tat tats and steel-drum-like or bongo drum echoes during the last two selections. Carbo fares better with his string projections encompassing light harpsichord-like plinks, rhythm guitar chugging and finger-style frail. But even he has tendency to often scrape the edges of George Benson-like smoothness.

That leaves the elder Knight and Svoboda defining the program, which they do admirably. Mixing signal processing and brass puffs, the trumpeter puts an individual spin on the foot-tapping, 1970s-style groove with subtle interjections that vary from smears and shakes to peeps. Appended to this are near vocalized textures, which complement the vocalist’s supple bel canto connections. A track like “Cirrus” for instance  finds Svoboda cutting though the built up drone using almost ecclesiastical voices, which widen and ascend as guitar buzzes and drum ruffs intensify. Completing the fragmentation suggested by vocals which come in and out of aural focus, are Knight’s portamento connections which eventually unite all four players’ textures.

Without vocals Solborg’s Tungemål also differs from TL; DR by substituting a piano for the other quartet’s double bass, but otherwise links guitar, trumpet and percussion amplified with electronics to propel this entry to nine tracks of ethereal story telling. While Santos Silva’s graceful portamento lines and strained grace notes most frequently personify the mellow and moderated expositions, they nestle within the vibrating scrapes and echoing thumps of Zach’s percussion collection, Toldam’s key plinks and repetitive  patterns plus Solbørg’s moderated frails and folksy twangs.

Confirming instrument interlocking, themes often begin with single note advancement and cascade into unison conclusions. Unlike TL; DR the four aren’t apprehensive to stretch the guitarist’s compositions to edge of atonality as they do on “Janus – og sides ord”. As bell-like peals shuffle and resonate below them, a connection is established between brass grace notes and guitar strums that escalate to an interlude of half-valve trumpet smears and string clicks. These inferences and oblique stir-stick like percussion occasionally pierce the resulting solid drone, that following a silent respite, adumbrates a contrapuntal sequence of stopped and vibrating piano keys.

The intertwining of programmed electronic impulses however is made clearest on tracks like “The Wires” and “Planes; inwards”. The former cleverly matches guitar twangs, electronic whizzes and gran casa scrapes that are elaborated with a vibrating trumpet drone. Meanwhile “Planes; inwards” intensifies widening and echoing chiming from Solborg’s strings with programmed static and gravelly percussion. When Santos Silva’s brass sniffs are further thinned by electronic whooshes and guitar string stabs, the introduction of percussion shuffles signals connection.

Overall the brass buzzes, piano soundboard echoes and guitar clips that confirm this sound collection’s conclusion are as imaginatively descriptive as they are cohesively inflexible, with instances of see-sawing between light and dark timbres or bulky and bony asides paramount.

Story telling intensity may trump a groove project in quartet programs like these. But an involved audience likely exists for each of these defining discs.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Too: 1. Cumulus 2. Cumulonimbus 3. Cirrus 4. Nimbus

Personnel: Too: Peter Knight (trumpet, electronics, live signal processing); Theo Carbo (guitar, electronics); Helen Svoboda (bass, voice) and Quinn Knight (drums)

Track Listing: Confluencia: 1. Spoke 2. Southern Swag 3. The Wires 4. Canramos 5. Planes; inwards 6. Janus – og sides ord 7. Friction, bell, bump 8. Planes 9. Pitches & Peace

Personnel: Confluencia: Susana Santos Silva (trumpet); Mark Solborg (guitars and electronics); Simon Toldam (piano and keyboards); Ingar Zach (gran casa, percussion and vibrating membranes [except 1, 9])