Nathan Chamberlain/Paul Sakai

Raymond Boni/Guillaume Jankowski
Variations pour Une Question
Mazeto Square 3770005705503

Recorded in the exotic, near rural locations of El Cerrito, California and Montpellier, France two sets of players work out an improvised duo strategies. Although the Americans on When We Gathered by the Sea, guitarist Nathan Chamberlain and drummer/Paul Sakai, are younger musicians, as is French drummer Guillaume Jankowski on Variations pour Une Question, his partner, Gallic guitarist Raymond Boni is 75 with a recording history going back to the early 1970s. This alone doesn’t alter the paradigm since the seven tracks on the brief US disc and the 10 tracks on the even briefer French one share a similar low-key approach. Candidly there’s only so much that can be done with this configuration to prevent languid uniformity from dominating the program. Both duos try various expressions and emphasis with their instruments. But both in the main lack needed grittiness to propel the tracks to a more elevated interfaced. Overall ennui is more prominent than energy.

Interesting enough, Chamberlain and Sakai reach their zenith with the title track. Expected warmer string chording and patterning pats and rattles from the drummer come more alive as the echoes around them become more pronounced. By the final sequence wide and more dissonant tones from the guitarist and cymbal splashes and drum reverberations break through the commonplace for a memorable experience. Other than that, the tracks seem all of a piece. Bright spots such as the trumpet-like string ricochets Chamberlain brings to the extended “The Cereal Aisle” matched with Sakai’s march-like pace, provide only brief respites from the emphasized string twangs. Similarly a turn to slurred fingering on “Things We Shred” which introduces emphasized frails is impaired by an overreliance on simple finger picking and repetitive strums. Too often elsewhere as well, staccato guitar twangs and string splaying matched with equivalent percussion patterns are cut off before a launch to tumult and passion can be reached.

It’s a similar story in the French countryside, though Boni who often works with Joe McPhee and Jankowski , who has a background in psychedelic Rock, seem able to inject more variables into their showcase. Both “De zero” and “Faune en tableaux” unroll with a shaking, presto beat, with the former driven by cymbal shakes and intermittent string pulls and the latter based around rim shot clanks and superfast stop-and-start string strums. “Fried spices pot” is notable for guitar slides and frails that pull single-string tones from high up on the fret board and from deep below the bridge. Other than that the duo creates melodic folk-like interludes as well as decorated near flamenco rhythms. But again circular string picking and strums plus expected drum accompaniment seem to dominate expression so that the pieces are often more somnolent than stirring.

The good news is that Boni has created so many fine sessions that an odd musical hiccup can be overlooked. Chamberlain, Sakai and Jankowski are just beginning their careers and as proven in flashes here that they have the wherewithal to soon create superior sounds.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: When: 1. Things We Shred 2. Through the Window 3. When We Gathered by the Sea 4. Josie’s Bounce 5. The Cereal Aisle 6. Basement Sancturary 7. De La Lune

Personnel: When: Nathan Chamberlain (guitar) and Paul Sakai (drums)

Track Listing: Variations: 1. En un sens 2. La source 3. Le pas dans le pas 4. Brise marine 5. De zéro 6. Faune en tableaux 7. Lucertole 8. Fried spices pot 9. Funny birds, funny cats 10. Le présent retire

Personnel: Variations: Raymond Boni (guitar) and Guillaume Jankowski (drums)