Never giving in to trends, UK based Slam Records continues to fascinate with three recent releases.
Jorge Cabadas uses his guitar in a variety of sounds and moods, creating a mix of picking the strings with a myriad of electronic effects. Moody pickings mix with sonic wallpaper as on “Experiment #3” and the space-is-the-place feel of “She Explores the World.” A mix of Brian Eno ambience and contemplative pickings dominate throughout, with gadgets galore on “AEE” and Kraftwerk for 6 strings coming across on “Diving (Part 2).” Eno with an axe?
The trio of Szilard Mezei/viola-kaval, Svetlana Novakovic/fl and Maja Dadovanlija/g bring together three long pieces of 32’, 27’ and an am “hit” of just 10” on this album. Don’t get scared; the cacophonies are kept to a minimum the music actually holds together well. You get melancholy strings that weave together and drift apart with guitar and flute on “Wild Geese I-II” as classical guitar dances with percussive strings to moods of modern classicism. Some folksy brooding is featured on “While Flower” as the woodwinds create a dark panorama. Istvan Csik brigns drums and percussion to “Shadow Show” which adds to the mystical sounds of flute and viola, while rich textures hover like an evening fog. Rewarding for the patient.
Istvan Grencso plays tenor sax, soprano sax, bass clarinet and pipe with his core team of Mate Pozsar/p, Robert Benko/b and Szilveszter Miklos/dr. Guest woodwinds and violas pop in and out of the songs in cameos like actors in a kabuki during this ambitious two disc release. The first disc mixes staccato pulses with festive dances and free formed bass solos on “Az Eskuvo” while sax and p iano brood with bass on on “supplication.” Pensive moments of “Ajanlas Asszonyainknak” segue into a dramatic cataclysm of reeds that swirl around intensely on “Dance of Reanimation” while a jazzy trio closes things out on “Minstrelsy.” Mixes of frenzied incoherence spice up undulations of contemplation and wonderment, crossing and erasing lines between composition and freedom.
Slam Productions