Zosha Warpeha

Jason Kao Hwang
Soliloquies
True Sound Recordings TS05

At least until the guitar’s hegemony from early in the 20^th Century onwards, the violin, and its variations were the most popular portable musical instruments, especially when it came to conventional so-called classical music and ethnic sounds. The situation changed drastically later in the 20^th century as creative musicians in the notated, Jazz and improvised music scenes began testing the violin and its affiliated cousin’s timbral limits with innovative expressions and techniques. That’s the discourse around which these solo string sessions revolve.

One of a Jazz and improvised music’s most innovative players, Jason Kao Hwang has worked with William Parker and Anthony Braxton among many others. Besides ensemble work he has also recorded unaccompanied arco solos. But while a capella arco permutations are common, even in free music, Hwang stretches his concepts still further on Soliloquies, with 12 pizzicato improvisations. Facing an equivalent challenge to extend solo string improvisations, on Silver Dawn Brooklyn-based violinist Zosha Warpeha expands the dimensions of the Hardanger fiddle, Norway’s national instrument. Using a specially constructed 10-string Hardanger d’amore, Warpeha, who has played with the likes of Eyvind Kang and Shahzad Ismaily and spent two years in Norway studying the instrument, modifies the tradition not only with unique interpretations, but also by adding wordless vocalizing at certain points.

Moving far beyond the usual brief passages in conventional violin music, Hwang cunningly stretches the fiddle’s string plinks, plucks and twangs so that at junctures passages resemble those from the guitar, sitar, dulcimer, mandolin guzheng or erhu. Interesting enough, the Euro-American corollaries are most pronounced on tracks such as “At the Beginning” and “Picadae”, where twangs, strums and slurred fingering suggest folkloric traditions. Sequences like “Vagabond” and “Bending Branches into Roots” in which high pitched clips and pointillist string stabs create non-Western sounding elevated and dissonant sound shards that pivot towards quasi-Asian interpretations.

The Soliloquies however are not designed to replicate other instruments’ timbres, but to showcase how Hwang improvises. “Shards” for instance, with its wide vibrating stops and expressive portamento encompasses continuous or doubled mid-range or presto twangs. Meanwhile the consecutive “Spinning Coins”, “Remembering Our Conversation” and “Where the River Runs Both Ways” make a perfect triptych of advanced techniques with lower-pitched plunks quietly deadened for uncommon effects and patterning tones ascending from andante to presto without loss of linearity. Finally the third sonic panel with string pricking erhu echoes turn to blurred fingering that is logical enough to reverberate textures that reflect back on the other expositions and forward to the entire session.

Silver Dawn on the other hand is a Norwegian reindeer of a different hue, or more appropriately sound. Attached to an antique tradition that dates to the mid-17^th Century, Warpeha’s manipulation of the five bowed strings and five strings suspended below the fingerboard that vibrate sympathetically would be unique in any situation. That the 13 tracks are improvised make the performance even more singular.

If this isn’t enough wordless vocalizing adds another sound tincture to the expositions. The revelatory “When I Am Real” for instance ends up adding native Amer-Indian styled breaths  and dusky cries that provide a lyrical counterpoint to the jagged string echoes. In contrast repeated pizzicato strums on “Hunter’s Moon’ expose both power flanges and reflective  action from the sympathetic suspended strings. Although her pizzicato down strokes bring out the staccato speed expected from a Bluegrass fiddle, other tracks move past rural affiliations. If anything the contrapuntal motif that challenges the initial buzzing stops and pointed slides that begin “First Light”, pivots to Baroque-like decorations, for instance. Tellingly though the subsequent squeaks and rhythmic feel confirm the track’s non-idiomatic modernism.

With multiple tones isolated and reflecting back upon themselves, tracks are as apt to evolve in broken chord affiliations as studied glissandi, with tones acrid as well as agreeable. The thick stropping pressure applied to the strings on the introduction to “All Nearness Pauses” is an instance of this. But again bel canto hums intertwined with multiple string development add the element of surprise.

The paramount application of this originality occurs on “Of the Mountain Ash”, where two parallel tone – one arco and the other pizzicato – are heard at once. Not only does its tandem evolution create linear expansion and an equivalent continuum, but warbling vocal harmonies wrap the three parallel lines into a distinctive statement.

Both Hwang and Warpeha have overcome the challenges of making individual statements with verve and virtuosity. Each disc is worthy of investigation.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Soliloquies: 1. At the Beginning 2. Hungry Shadows 3. Vagabond 4. Spinning Coins 5. Remembering Our Conversation 6. Where the River Runs Both Ways 7. Dreams Dream 8. Silhouettes Lean Forward 9. Encirclement 10. Bending Branches into Roots 11. Shards 12. Before God

Personnel:  Soliloquies: Jason Kao Hwang (pizzicato violin)

Track Listing: Silver: 1. Wakerobin 2. Larkspur 3.When I Am Real 4. Johannea 5. Flood Rising 6. Hunter’s Moon 7. First Light 8. Of the Mountain Ash 9. Picadae 10. At River’s Bend 11. Dreamt the Raven 12.  Sisters Three 13. All Nearness Pauses

Personnel: Silver: Zosha Warpeha (Hardanger d’amore and voice)