Michael Oelgeschlaeger
Simply put, in my mind, this is an outstanding Free Jazz/Improv CD. I fail to follow duo or even solo records. But not here. I couldn't believe the sounds from the instruments, especially John Edwards' double bass. Not being able to read a note or playing a musical instrument, I recommend the imagination of both players and the execution of the music. John and Okkyung, I admire how well you know your instruments and what to get out of it.
"This is an adventure in consciousness in which two musicians of the very first order explore the resemblance in their instrumental voices, a resemblance that they explore by attacking it." - Stuart Broomer, Point of Departure
"Un grand moment d'improvisation libre, organique, viscéral, puissant, créatif et sans concession, qui redonne de la fraîcheur et de la vigueur à cette musique. Recommandé." - Julien Héraud, improv sphere
"Evolving, living, breathing, fighting, fucking, creating: this is as far from petrification as it is possible to get." - Scott McMillan, The Liminal
"Thrilling stuff, but far more than just thrills—including rhythmic sophistication, rich melodic invention and empathetic interplay. A duo to cherish." - John Eyles, All About Jazz
"There are those round these parts who posit that free improvisation is a cerebral, sexless art, arguments that are annihilated by the rough structural and timbral shag of this music." - Philip Clark, The Wire
"nothing short of a symphony of percussive clatter, tweaked harmonics, rumbling clangor, buzzing strings, hollow woody thumps, and stuttering dances of bow and fingers." - Dan Sorrells, Free Jazz
~~~
A stunning series of duo improvisations from two of the world's finest string players, whose shared dynamism and intensity of purpose produces fluid, powerful music that ranges from dense viscosity to swift effervescence.
With all-strings improvisation there's often a danger of pseudo-classicism, of sounding vaguely like modernist chamber music, replete with refined flourishes and familiar motifs. Edwards and Lee don't just avoid this but go nowhere near it, heading off in another direction entirely.
White Cable, Black Wires is full of rude vitality, driven by an intensely physical interplay which encompasses growling blocks of noise, subtle melodies, and nimble rhythmic entanglements.
credits
released January 1, 2013
John Edwards - double bass
Okkyung Lee - cello
Recorded by Sebastian Lexer at The Welsh Chapel, London on 25 May 2011
Mixed by John Edwards
Mastered by Rupert Clervaux at Gray’s Inn Road
Music by John Edwards (PRS) & Okkyung Lee (ASCAP)
supported by 16 fans who also own “White Cable, Black Wires”
Joelle Leandre's large ensemble work Can You Hear Me? is an exercise in the 21st century understanding of musical form. It is one of those pieces that is difficult to describe - you just have to hear it for yourself... if you can? Christopher Moklebust
supported by 16 fans who also own “White Cable, Black Wires”
Total mastery of patience, time, and drama create a constantly engaging journey that never gets tiresome or same-y: in fact the harder you listen the better it gets! Somehow Sorey et al. find a way to combine the deep listening and spontaneous interaction of the best jazz with the sense of every tone and sound being worth a universe of listening, which could be equally from Cage and Feldman or the accompaniment to an ancient ritual.
The recording/engineering is absolutely perfect as well. Giles
St Celfer returns with tracks culled from a series of live shows, each one a showcase for his inventive experimentalism. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 26, 2023
Seattle’s St Celfer returns with four more boundary-breaking electronic compositions sparked with sudden bursts of melody. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 6, 2022
supported by 16 fans who also own “White Cable, Black Wires”
looks like we've got ourselves a bass-off! a dueling duet of double bass, a sweet improvised offering displaying the obsession with limitless possibilities espoused by these miraculous musicians! Steven Smith