By April, 2009, when this set of duo recordings was laid down, Nate Wooley and Paul Lytton were recognized as compatriots, albeit of different countries and generations. Their shared interest in the little events of sound making, while not exclusively theirs, had led them toward the development of their own set of patterns. Those 2009 recordings are here given a sort of stamp of authenticity with release on psi, the Emanem imprint of Lytton's longtime collaborator Evan Parker, who has used the label to champion Peter Evans, another young New York trumpeter.
And for a trumpet/percussion duo, their pattern-bank is considerably large. Lytton is one of the progenitors in extending the percussion rack to contact mikes and handheld electronics. His tiny, mechanized orbits are matched nicely here by Wooley, who doesn't use electronic effects here but does use a microphone and amplifier to expand the audibility of his horn to the extent that, like Lytton's rig, it sounds more like an exercise in electronic manipulation than it actually is. The four tracks here (ranging in length from 12 to 15 minutes) have a nervous energy that feels, even during sparser passages, fairly well caffeinated. Throughout there's a great feeling of possibility, that anything could happen. They sputter and turn and make sounds their instruments don't, and somehow seem as curious as would be the careful listener regarding the ongoings. They're here, it seems, to discover with us, and the discoveries are, at times, remarkable.
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