Otomo Yoshihide / Paulo Hartmann / Antonio Panda Gianfratti / Marco Scarassatti

Somewhat of a missed opportunity the compelling hour-long improvisation that makes up Psychogeography is only presented in audio. A visual record would reflect the subjective calculation that existed before any sounds were created during this annual São Paulo festival and the practiced actions expressed by the players during the CD’s six tracks titled as if they were cheque book coding. Critically as well, visuals would allow everyone to see and understand which of the multiple of mostly home-made instruments were being strummed, smacked squeaked, scraped and sounded to create this unique program.

Dealing with the extant session though, periods of miscommunication and misconceptions have to be figured into the aleatory equation since sounds that result from gestures or movements that aren’t seen can remain a mystery to the listener. Luckily that doesn’t happen too often. The reason is that An Improvisational Derive matches one of Japan’s most on-the-edge improvisers with three sound designers from Brazil. Otomo Yoshihide, who plays turntables and guitar here, has also wo4rked with Western improvisers such as Paal Nilseen-Love and Tony Buck. On the South American side, Paulo Hartmann, who plays a variety of stringed instruments and effects is a multimedia artist who also organizes improv festivals; percussionist Antonio Panda Gianfratti, has played with the likes of Sabu Toyozumi and John Russell; while Marco Scarassatti, who play a collecti0n of self-constructed instruments, is an academic, sound artist and composer, who has recorded with non-Brazilians Eduardo Chagas and Abdul Moimême and many others.

Working from an ever-shifting aural landscape that highlihights powerful string strums, horn overblowing and intonation from turntable samples that swerve in and around different parts of the studio, the program eventually reaches an apogee of ever-shifting textures. Included are nasal reed-like blows, slurred fingering and Hawaiian-style slack guitar styling, as well as drum collisions. All of which adds up to a defined note-restricted sequence that serves both as an underlying motif and augurs for further sound expansion. The bubbling whooshes and oscillated vibrations are finally resolved on the penultimate “-23.5496581,-46.6389519” where a climax is constructed out of combined and blended plucks, rubs and reverb. This new intonation then descends into a squirming sequence of slaps, clanks and echoes including sitar-like string emphasis and undifferentiated swooshes and buzzes, The concluding “-19.9359989,-43.9201107” is even more metallic, with more jagged scrapes and swipes and the bottom enlivened by stentorian drumming and wood-wrenching pulls. Still the piece contains an identifiable finale as mechanized buzzes and string spiccato give way to jaw harp-like twangs and a ring modulator-like gonging that repeats the bell-tolling heard during the disc’s first track.

A thorough, if somewhat esoteric snapshot of one tranche of Brazil’s improvisational scene, Psychogeography is an active listen. It is also one that emphasizes the music’s separation from European or American models. Still more, musical dot connection as well as more instrumentation characterization could have made the set more comprehensive.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. -23.555884,-46.6374735 2. -23.6027967,-46.6619298 3. -23.5681348,-46.522029 4. -19.8708043,-43.9667332 5. -23.5496581,-46.6389519 6. -19.9359989,-43.9201107

Personnel: Otomo Yoshihide (electric guitar and bass, turntables): Paulo Hartmann (prepared 3rd bridge guitar, freteless prepared chiquita, gambelão and effects); Antonio Panda Gianfratti (contemporary percussion, drums) and Marco Scarassatti (viola de cocho, self-made instruments, kraiser, pássarococho, tromp Kirk Roland)