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
Facebook: Squidco Sales



Heard In

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


  Elliott Sharp: SysOrk 
  ReGenerate
  (zOaR) 


  
   review by Massimo Ricci
  2022-07-20
Elliott Sharp: SysOrk: ReGenerate (zOaR)

The first picture I, as a young enthusiast, ever saw of Elliott Sharp came from a Guitar Player article about experimental guitarists. My curiosity was piqued by the unique physiognomy of a shaven-headed man harnessing a self-made "stringed thing" while sitting on the floor. Over decades since then, that dangerous monk has repeatedly provided us with stimuli for exercising a type of listening decidedly not conforming to the so-called norm. He also attempted to inculcate audiences worldwide with the acknowledgment of commonly known dissonance as a fundament of evolution.

Sharp's own inquisitiveness has driven him down paths seemingly at odds with each other, but in fact thoroughly interconnected. The logical synthesis of those quests lies in the biotically advanced variety of his scores. Warranting a considerable degree of interpretative liberty to aptly gathered ensembles, some of them represent — to quote the composer's notes to "Foliage" — "a piece of retinal art as much as it is an instruction set for sound, form and function interlocked".

The compositions that make up ReGenerate were recorded on March 4, 2021 at New York's Roulette for the E#@70 series, all four premiering that evening. SysOrk's lineup consisted of Lea Bertucci (alto saxophone), Shayna Dulberger (contrabass), Rachel Golub (violin), Terry L. Greene II (trombone), James Ilgenfritz (contrabass), Judith Insell (viola), Margaret Lancaster (flute), Ron Lawrence (viola), Payton MacDonald (marimba), Chris McIntyre (trombone), Danny Tunick (percussion, vibraphone), Weasel Walter (drums), Nate Wooley (trumpet). Sharp performed on bass clarinet and a Strandberg 8-string guitarbass, besides conducting.

By focusing on the opening "Viridia" the connoisseur immediately recognizes the rhythmic fracturing and massive overlapping of fragments and cells typical of Sharp's most rewarding output. In a way that is still inexplicable, the progressionist contrapuntal ferments of this piece initiate streams of uncontaminated beauty, closely connected with concepts of force and variegation.

The same can be said of "Feedback 21", beginning in a somewhat minimalist mode to gradually build into a veritable symphony of diversity, all pitches embodying cues of expressive innovation within an admirable collective intelligence. This is perhaps the spot where the droning integrants of Sharp's music are best appreciated. They appear, like everything else, as necessary stages during processes of remote origin, in which instinct and brainpower play equally important roles.

While both aforementioned episodes are based upon algorithmic scores, it should be reminded that Sharp's compositional skills are matched by his ability as a multi-instrumentalist who can, if so decided, ruthlessly alter normal timbres via computer processing and/or electronics. In the solitary "Oksugenos" this is applied to the bass clarinet, persistently morphing between its original tone and a version dissolved in acid and poured into a centrifuge. If that's not enough, let me detour for a moment and point your ears to the exhilarating "Augury" (on Carbon's Datacide) for yet another example of how a mere wind instrument can transmute to a bunch of jibber-jabbering Gizmo punks.

In the title track, the CD's longest segment at nearly 29 minutes, the musicians follow an animated graphic score. They draw from their individual baggage what's needed for a delineation of Sharp's vibrant resourcefulness. The sounds range on all fronts, from discharges of radical intensity to freeform chamber, from precise details and measurements to "indeterminate activity of resultant masses", as Glenn Branca would have it. Heterogeneous components intertwine in ways too complex for instantaneous decoding; but, again, it's the spontaneous generation of ramifications and flows inside the whole that turns into genuine richness.

One should take very seriously the (often involuntary) teachings of a sonic researcher who has used elements of fractal geometry, chaos theory and genetic principles for some of his past electroacoustic experiments. Plus much more, not describable in the space of a review but definitely assimilable by reading the excellent autobiographical volume IrRational Music (Terra Nova Press), an absolute must for any serious student of E#'s artistic vision. In the book's introduction, the Inner Ear is described as "a place to both reflect on the perception of the world and invent what sound could possibly be: a soundtrack to the utopian". The diligent preservation of that place is mandatory for all of us.







Comments and Feedback:



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

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Kim Jae Jung:
Shamanism
(Relative Pitch)



Joe McPhee/
Susanna Gartmayer/
John Edwards/
Maria Portugal:
Monster
(Klanggalerie)



Signe Emmeluth/
Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten/
Axel Filip:
Hyperboreal Trio
(Relative Pitch)



John Butcher/
John Edwards:
This Is
Not Speculation
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Izumi Kimura/
Lina Andonovska/
Dominique Pifarely:
Seven Dreams
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Jerome Deupree/
Sylvie Courvoisier/
Lester St. Louis/
Joe Morris:
Canyon
[2 CDs]
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Marc Baron/
Eric La Casa:
Contrefacons
(Swarming)



Francisco Lopez:
Untitled (
2021-2022)
[2 CDs]
(Bu Lang Tribute Cake)



Eventless Plot |
Haarvol:
The Subliminal Paths
[CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
(Innovo Editions)



Akmee:
Sacrum Profanum
(Nakama Records)



Karl Evangelista Quintet
feat. Bobby Bradford and
William Roper:
Solace Angles
(Asian Improv)



Sveio:
Latent Imprints
(577 Records)



The Sleep Of Reason
Produces Monsters (
Rasmussen/
Mitelli/
Rezaei/
Koenig):
The Sleep Of Reason
Produces Monsters
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)



Dan Brown/
Dan Reynolds:
Live At
The Grange Hall
[unauthorized][CASSETTE]
(Sacred Realism)



Matt Mitchell:
Sacrosanctity
(Obliquity)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj/
Mike Majkowski/
Magda Mayas/
Tony Buck):
Love
(thanatosis produktion/
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj/
Mike Majkowski/
Magda Mayas/
Tony Buck):
Love
[VINYL]
(thanatosis produktion/
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Mary Halvorson Septet:
Illusionary Sea
[2 LPS]
(Firehouse 12 Records)



Darius Jones:
Legend of e'Boi (
The Hypervigilant Eye)
[VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(Aum Fidelity)



Irene Schweizer/
Rudiger Carl/
Johnny Dyani/
Han Bennink:
Irenes Hot Four
(Intakt)







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. (17768)