ARE DEFINITIONS IN  ORDER? Grensco Collective Special 5 with Ken Vandermark: Do Not Slam The Door!Trio Kontraszt: Cryptic Scattered Images of Time Forgotten, Aki takase Japanic: Thema Prima

The Oxford Dictionary definition of music states: “vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion”. Are these latest three albums from BMC actually music, or just sounds from musical instruments?

Ken Vandermark plays tenor sax and clarinet for ten tunes with Isvan Grensco/ts-as-cl-fl, Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer/p-el, Robert Benki-Erno Hock/b and Szilveszter Miklos/dr. Are two bassist really needed to keep this team together? Shrill clarinets on the spacious “Bunch”, dark flute stories of the jungle beats of the title tune, drums and woodwinds float on the trudging “Running Fence” and tenor saxes jab and punch on “Parallel  Phenomenon”. Background to a nightmare?

Steven Kovacs Tickmayer plays just about every type of piano, including the obligaroty “prepared piano” along with drummer Szilveszter Miklos and woodwinder Istvan Grencso. There’s an avalanche of sounds on “Trash Tango”, scratches and cacophony on “Noctunal Zones” and a wild soprano searing through the keys on “Different Divisions and Rags”. The horns and piano create a somber rubato that turns to agony on “Night Song of Icicles on the Banks of the Danube” and puffy tenor sax create smoke signals on “Dark Ramifications”. Better to practice on the piano than to prepare it?

Pianist Aki Takase teams up with saxist Daniel Erdmann, bassist Johannes Fink, drummer Dag Magnus Narvesen and DJ Illvibe on turntables and electronics for ten pieces of sound that used to serve on albums called “Sound Effects”. Loose and floating soprano sax on “A Goldfish in Space”, hectic and peppy reeds on the appropriately titled “Traffic  Jam” and the resulting crash of “Berlin Express” make for a warning to parents who spend thousands of dollars on their kids’ music lessons.

www.bmcrecords.com

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