Simon Rose/Nicola L. Hein

Durant/Gallio
Cha tug e ach dà fhichead biadhna
Emptybirdcage Records EBR 015

Despite Brexit, cooperation still exists between the UK and the EU, and this blending of values is very apparent when it comes to improvised music. Take these sessions for instance. While one partner in each duo is British and the other from the continent, their chief attraction is in how both blend singular reed techniques, uncommon string instruments and analogous improvisational tropes.

The Moon men featured are UK baritone saxophonist Simon Rose, who has worked with Ernesto Rodrigues and Michel Doneda among many others and German Nicola Hein, playing 7-string microtonal guitar and electronics and whose associates include Ada Rave and Sebastian Gramss. Expanding other language currents to contemporary times, the titles on Cha tug e ach dà fhichead biadhna were crafted from a mix of Scottish Gallic and Romansh, with the music evolved by Swiss Christoph Gallio on alto, soprano and c-melody saxophones, who has recorded with Gerry Hemingway and Alfred Zimmerlin to name a few, and the UK’s Phil Durrant using electric mandolin and electronics, and another improviser whose connections stretch from John Butcher to Daniel Thompson.

Avoiding the basement pitches but not the aggressive thrust expected of baritone saxophone playing, Rose’s pressurized snores are tempered with blurred flattement and squeaky rumbles throughout Moon’s seven selections. Alternately concentrated or tongue stopped, his interaction with Hein’s shaking flanges, upwards frails and wave form drones harmonize, challenge or are subsumed by the guitarist’s motifs. Sometimes, as on “Earth”, the terrestrial blend consists of bellicose metallic flanges with string clanging and blurred fingering that meet equally pugnacious triple-tongued snorts before settling into a trenchant connection. Elsewhere as on “Revolve” the gyrating motifs are equally pressurized from reed respiration and searing string twangs, although the resulting scrapes, splinters and scrapes include soaring affiliations.

The extended title track is the most electronically affiliated with shrieking mechanized undertones emphasized. Yet altissimo reed yelps and circular breathed flutters unite with fragmented string slides and frails to emphasize informed lightness as well as darkness.

Instrumental variety is more prevalent on the other CD since Gallio can spread his ideas among three saxophones and the resonance from Durant’s mandolin is both unfamiliar and unique. Plus the balanced sequences are less corrosive and slightly more cooperative than those expressed by Rose and Hein. This is elaborated from the beginning since “Selvaschadetg, Ceramica, Parzialmein Smaltada” the first track is also the lengthiest.

Here vibrating string strums and stops mixed with electronic-emphasized timbral wallows and shakes slowly expand at the same time as reed multiphonics encompass empathized smears and tongue stops and inflate to almost bagpipe-like chanter drones. Descending to sucking quacks and yelps, Gallio then connects with Durrant’s finger-picked string clanks and wavering voltage oscillations. Just when it seems reed note bending peeps are unstoppable, the mandolinist’s thick strums make the connection.

This double-teamed tightrope-like movement of contrapuntal aggressive from both musicians alongside cadenced electronic swells and purrs animate the rest of the selections. However here to none of the improvisations are purely opaque. As the two move through the tracks shards of buoyancy and lightness are heard. A piece such as “Bidh Brògan A ‘Coimhead” for instance balances a thinning reed vibrato with dedicated finger picking from Durrant that seesaw to clanging thickness atop echoing electronics before dissolving.

Evolving with parallel expositions that are often as separate as intersected, there is also space for each to develop his own narratives. Durrant’s single note frails and stops or constant strumming can illuminate a narrative as can Gallio’s honks, aviary cries or peeps. The result is that  the evolution “Lar-fhìdhlear” for instance is defined both by Gallio moving from triple tonguing to nearly endless Aylerian screams and stops with contrasting finger-tip string vibrations from Durrant.

Politically the UK rejoining Europe may be far off, yet these duo CDs prove that timbres-across-the-channel connections can make for notable improvised music.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Cha: 1. Selvaschadetg, Ceramica, Parzialmein Smaltada 2. Betg Tut Las Casas Èn Egalas 3. Nus Essan En Buna Intesa 4. Tgi Tuts Vegnan A Seser A Mesa 5. Lar-fhìdhlear 6.  Cha Tug E Ach Dà Fhichead Bliadhna 7. Bidh Brògan A ‘Coimhead

Personnel: Cha: Phil Durrant (electric mandolin and electronics) and Christoph Gallio (alto, soprano and c-melody saxophones)

Track Listing: Moon: 1.  Lunar Phasing 2. Moon 3. Pull 4. Earth 5. Orbit 6. Gravity 7. Revolve

Personnel: Moon: Simon Rose (baritone saxophone) and Nicola Hein (7-string microtonal guitar and electronics)