Lonberg-Holm / Strid

Discus and Plumbing

Label: Peira Country: USA

"This work exemplifies the very essence of musical honesty. Two musicians, two microphones, one room: simple but yet elegant conditions form the genesis of this recording. More than anything this is a document of an event as opposed to a constructed object. It really makes one jealous of the mastery involved."-Peira

"The eleventh [Peira release] showcases the strong European ties of the Chicago improv scene in a duo between Chicago cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and Swedish drummer Ramond Strid, recorded during a Lonberg-Holm visit to Sweden. This one is more musical and purely acoustic. It's also potentially the least interesting of the Peira trio. Strid mostly employs fairly typical skittery non-rhythmic kit-baiting, along with plenty of bowls and other tools. Lonberg-Holm stays mostly musical, playing atonally and in dissonant double-stops, but there isn't too much of a climax or new territory to be found - the two bow and scrape for awhile, so to speak, and that's it. Compared to another Peira release documenting Lonberg-Holm's dynamic improvisations with Aaron Zarzutzki (my Foxy review here), this is quite flat in comparison. I don't want to blame this on Strid only - the recording here is very dry, panning cello hard right and drums hard left, so part of what's missing is a sense of interaction. Perhaps there's a lesson here on the delicacy of recording these meetings well, and an implicit argument for seeing them live."-Travis Bird, Foxy Digitalis