bst.cr

bst.cr

Label: Bug Incision Records Country: Canada

"There are those listeners who like to follow a recording by clearly tracing the path each musician is taking on a given set. Others prefer to allow the music to wash over them, disregarding individual intentions in favour of the whole. To the former group, Bug Incision presents to you a challenge. To paraphrase Derek Bailey (and a bunch of others, admittedly), the music gets really interesting when it becomes difficult to tell who is doing what. By that measure, this is supremely interesting music. Bennett and Jewell are largely indistinguishable without an intimate acquiantance with either player's work and, while it is suspected that bows play a role in these sounds, it's really tough to tell, and all the more fun for it.

The way their sounds intersect with Shook's sax playing is a revelation, someone picking up where another's phrase dwindles, and sound mimicry of the first order. While some bemoan the latter aspect of improvising as pedestrian, once one considers the instrumentation at hand, it becomes a really rich and inventive listening experience. Also, this group is not so much about those classic modes of improvisation; their approach entails presenting sounds to one another and patiently figuring out how they can co-exist. Shook's playing recalls echoes of Evan Parker, but only in the most fragmented sense, and also the master of sax rudeness, Jack Wright, in his glossolalic soundings, and his ability to make the saxophone sound quite a bit like a trumpet. The lesser-known, but apparently quite wonderful Mara Sedlins adds an extra layer of quiet confusion to the second piece. A really fine piece of contemporary American improvising."-Bug Incision