Martin Küchen/Matthias Risberg

Taking antithetical approaches to intimate piano-saxophone duets are musicians from two continents and four countries.

Stripped down to essentials and recorded in Sweden’s rural waters and forest area is Opus TVE. But considering that pianist Matthias Risberg, who has recorded with the likes of Fredrik Ljungkvist; and saxophonist Martin Küchen, who plays with numerous international improvisers, are some of the country’s foremost free musicians, the eight tracks are anything but Arcadian. The gutsy reed multiphonics and inner piano and prepared string burrowing from the two sometimes mask the sounds of any perceived wildness in that primeval area. Based around 10 compositions by saxophonist German saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock on the other hand, and part of her ongoing piano duos, Fragile’s 10 compositions are certainly more fragile than those on the other disc. But this is chamber-Jazz with a bite. Besides the saxophonist’s restrained extended techniques, the tracks also judders with unexpected but collaborative actions from Canadian pianist Andy Milne. Both players are now US residents, with the disc recorded in New York state.

With Küchen adding the occasional snare drum rattle and echo, the Swedish tracks usually mix crying, peeping and whining split tones from tenor and sopranino saxophones and keyboard patterning plus backboard wood slaps or jiggling string variables from Risberg. The saxophonist’s dissected reed cries, sometimes played by separating the mouthpiece from the ligature, can work their way into strident duck-like quacks and slap tones as on “En annan dag”, where they’re met by twanging strings and stopped piano keys. At the same time, Risberg’s focused pianism can encompass deep rumbles that expose the strings metallic qualities, to face off with Küchen’s widening and vigorous overblowing. Then again the pianist reveals some swing intimations and even measured gentleness as he does on “Dag 5433”. Perhaps surprisingly at that point the saxophonist also moves into the same territory, with low-pitched sultry boudoir-like timbres bubbling upwards from initial watery cries.

Staying mostly tonal and low-key Laubrock and Milne construct a straightforward piano-saxophone aural image compared to Küchen and Risberg’s Bizarro image. Often working in double counterpoint, the tandem expositions are usually linear and well-paced. The saxophonist’s melodic squirts share space with body-tube slurs, scoops and vibrations creating a landscape deepened by the pianist’s strumming glissandi, which scoots into lower timbres for extra percussiveness. These low-pitched resonations are heard on a track like “Illusion of Character” as the expanding glissandi contrast with the saxophonist’s rips, slides and repeated bites until single note extensions corral reed twitters into a linear interface. Similarly hard piano key pops that bounce and sparkle on “Ants in My Brain” push the saxophonist’s double-tonguing to a lighter and more fragile tone which becomes so effervescent that the final sequence nearly floats away. Often Milne’s occasional key crashes provide contrapuntal encouragement to Laubrock, as keyboard plinks solidify an exposition of well-formed, clarion clusters from the saxophonist. There is some space for Laubrock’s reed squeaks, scoops, whine and blusters, though they’re nothing like Kuchen’s expressions. Still on the concluding “Splinter” and “Shard” Milne’s contributions are more aggressive than Risberg’s are on the other disc. The first uses alternating piano chords to help turn the theme to updated swing what starts off as high-pitched key percussion and whistling trills from the saxophonist. Then on “Shard”, Milne pushes aside piercing reed doits for inner string twangs and outside wood slaps becoming the more aggressive improviser.

Geography and experience aside, each duo projects a decisive examination of piano-saxophone confluence.

—Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Opus: 1. Fåjön 2. Dag 5 3. Dag 7 4. Dag 5433 5. En annan dag 6. Samma dag som en annan dag 7. Dag 18 minus end ag 8. Sudetenland

Personnel: Opus: Martin Küchen (tenor and sopranino saxophones and snare drum) and Mattias Risberg (prepared and unprepared grand piano)

Track Listing: Fragile: 1. Equanimity 2. Fragment 3. Boulder Fall Ejecta 4. Fragile 5. Shard 6. Ants in My Brain 7. Unapologetically Yours 8. Illusion of Character 9. Kintsugi 10. Splinter

Personnel: Fragile: Ingrid Laubrock (soprano and tenor saxophones) and Andy Milne (piano)