Escape is a fitting title for this set of pieces recorded in Amsterdam in the summer of 2022 by guitarist Andy Moore and pianist Marta Warelis. The seven tracks featuring a minimalist pallet of sounds takes the reader into a world where music grows out of silence into noise and back again, but also embraces silence, taking us from our world into the world of the imagination for a satisfying aesthetic journey.
Warelis and Moore are both intrepid sound explorers on their instruments with a substantial track record. They bring to the table the grit of punkrock and free improvisation, as well as their own interesting cultural baggage to the mix. The music itself has quite a range of textural qualities, from the woolly opener "Thaw Bush," to the noisier "Highway Trajectory" and "Maintenance Cabbage. "Imbue" is a slowly evolving mediative piece, while "Commitment Keys" is an exploratory, searching and pointillistic track. During "Incunabula," Warelis makes interesting use of the strings of the piano, creating a razor-sharp cello-like effect in counterpoint to Moore's bare plucked pronouncements, and the album ends with a softly swirling "Apocalyptic TV" that revs into increasingly ominous sounds.
The pairing of these two musicians results in a sympathetic but multifaceted musical outing that will please listeners who expect imaginative play as part of the musical experience, but who also expect instrumental command in the process. Moore's post-punk/improvised music chops and Warelis' sophisticated pianistic vocabulary yield attractive and effective results.