Call Sherlock Holmes, and see if he can find a melody…
Saxist Jonathan Reisin teams up with drummer Francisco Mela for five meetings of instruments making sounds-is it music?
There are some short pieces like “First Drops” that feature gravelly tenor sax and flailing drumming, while for seven minutes, subtones and sticks meet on “Flourishing”. Someone is gasping for air on “Shrouded by The Trees”, while sonic dots and dashes punctuate “Thunderclouds”. Then, there’s a 27 minute opus of the title tune that is a lesson in endurance of shrieks, cries and ruminations. So much for Art Blakey’s quote that “all music is dance music”.
Playing piano with drummer Marcus Gilmore, Jason Moran teams with Tyler Gilmores’ electronics and tapes to create an album that sounds like Brian Eno’s step children. Lots of looping effects, (Tape Loop B I, II, III), prepared piano (“Inward Curve”) and dots and dashes (“Little Known”). Things go bump in the night and scramble on “Onset” and heavy piano veers through the fog of “Tape Loop C II)”. Sheet music, anyone?