The Squid's Ear
Writing about improvised, contemporary, experimental and unusual music,
following the activities of Squidco...
  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!



The Squid's Ear




Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Robert Dick / Nicola L. Hein 
  Structures Of Unreason
  (Shhpuma) 


  
   review by Massimo Ricci
  2021-12-16
Robert Dick / Nicola L. Hein: Structures Of Unreason (Shhpuma)

As a renowned flutist with a chameleonic palette, Robert Dick's idiosyncratic playing includes a patented device that enhances the instrument's potential for glissando expressiveness (by no means a given, with flute). Nicola L. Hein's sound artistry encompasses the attributes of a philosopher/scientist whose cynical guitar approach projects any degree of magnitude between "bitingly noisy" and "sinisterly convulsive", concealing swarms of reverberant signifiers under a wide range of unsentimental motions. An explosive combination, according to the old clich�. Yet absolutely nothing is evoking commonplace on Structures Of Unreason.

Then again, genuine pathfinders don't settle for obvious appearances and comfortable presumptions. They persist in walking, surveying, picking, pondering. Most crucially, they ruthlessly tweak what seems unusable. These four tracks display an outright rebellion against being pegged in any way, or merely positioned inside a set of silly definitions. Even when listening to them intently, the brain struggles to seize just a risible fraction of the tremendous wealth of acoustic and dynamic information conveyed.

Above all, what's revealed is the awareness of the performers with respect to what surrounds them, the vibration of aliveness in its less detectable components. It's aural transfiguration at a molecular level. Dick and Hein become conduits through which energy masses of variable intensity can be transferred. The recipients should adjust their internal knobs to be a functional part of the process: appropriately decoding that resonance, observing that liquefaction of logic until it's turned into coherent audio painting.

This work's merits are furtherly confirmed by its "reproductive pliability." By carrying out tests � as this reviewer's used to doing in the presence of valuable records � you'll find out that the music still preserves its fundamental assets when listened to at lower volume. In other words, the substance of an instantaneous universe remains, even without pinpointing specific constituents (which, in improvisation, leads straight to intellectual quicksand). Within what could appear unfriendly at first hearing, spaces open up that disclose the precious multifunctionality of unorthodox timbres. The instrumentalists are never to be overlooked, though, however willingly they place themselves in the role of egoless mediums. In fact, it's thanks to them that we manage to decontaminate our auditory compartments from the germs of praxis.







Comments and Feedback:



More Recent Reviews, Articles, and Interviews @ The Squid's Ear...


The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Don Cherry (
w/ Walcott/
Thomas):
Sunrise (
1977)
[VINYL 2 LPs]
(WeWantSounds)



Don Cherry (
w/ Walcott/
Thomas):
Sunrise (
1977)
(WeWantSounds)



Satoko Fujii's Orchestra Tokyo:
Kappa Ondo
[2 CDs]
(Libra)



Sunny Murray/
Arthur Doyle/
Rasul Siddik:
New Light
[VINYL]
(NoBusiness)



Sunny Murray/
Arthur Doyle/
Rasul Siddik:
Incantations
(NoBusiness)



Sunny Murray/
Arthur Doyle/
Rasul Siddik:
Incantations
[VINYL]
(NoBusiness)



Brandon Seabrook (
w/ Frisell/
Carter/
Gilmore):
Utility Modern
(Out Of Your Head Records)



Threadgill Zooid, Henry:
Cut You Where
You Was
(Pi Recordings)



Henry Threadgill Zooid:
Cut You
Where You Was
[VINYL]
(Pi Recordings)



Rempis/
Abrams/
Ra + Baker:
The Walls of
the Temple
Are Made of Sound
[2 CDs]
(Aerophonic)



Rova (
Ackley/
Adam/
Ochs/
Raskin):
Those Who...
(ESP)



Michael Thieke/
Luigi Marino:
For The Skylarks
[CASSETTE w/ DONLOAD]
(Emergent Idioms)



Jason Hwang Kao/
Human Rites Trio (
w/ Drury/
Filiano):
Second Life
(True Sound Recordings)



Wadada Smith Leo (
Courvoisier/
Laswell/
Gibbs/
akLaff/
&c.):
Constellations
And
Hemispheres
(Burning Ambulance Music)



Casserley/
Marzan/
Van Schouwburg/
Wachsmann:
Being
(Bead)



Gebhard Ullmann (
w/ Steve Swell/
Joe Morris/
Charles Downs):
Coffee And Berries
(ESP Disk)



Gottliche Skizzen (
Delazer/
Delius/
Obleser):
Ringi Ringd Coint
(ezz-thetics now)



Sonelius Smith/
Adam Kahan:
We'll Let You Know
When We Find Out
[VINYL]
(577 Records)



Sophie Hassfurther:
Kaleidoscope -
Empathy
(ezz-thetics now)



Airlift (
Diehl/
Lowery/
Lawson/
Levin/
Lavelle/
Hotep/
Marquez/
Dennis):
Spatial Recognition
[2 CDs]
(577 Records)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (21971)