The Squid's Ear
Writing about unusual and experimental 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.


  Susan Alcorn / Patrick Holmes / Ryan Sawyer 
  From Union Pool
  (Relative Pitch Records) 


  
   review by Paul Serralheiro
  2023-07-11
Susan Alcorn / Patrick Holmes / Ryan Sawyer: From Union Pool (Relative Pitch Records)

In some music circles the name of Susan Alcorn elicits excitement about the possibilities of the pedal steel guitar, as concerts where she is featured tend to bring the fascinatingly flexible and fluid sounds of that instrument to improvisational heights and textural wonders. On this recording, alongside Patrick Holmes on clarinet and Ryan Sawyer on drums, one can hear what exactly all the excitement is about.

The trio performs three tracks, "Benn," "Ñaar," "Ñett," through which the modulations of the music speak in the confines of the Union Pool in Brooklyn NY [a popular bar set in a former pool supply store presenting live music] to its responsive audience.

"Benn" takes off like an airplane into a rainstorm, soaring in sways and swirls above the clouds and back down again, turbulence expected and well navigated. Turbulence in musical thoughts is a mix of silences, noises, melodico-harmonic and percussive articulations of drums, pedal steel and clarinet.

"Ñaar," a second movement of sorts, serves as an elaboration and investigation, stones are turned and burrow holes of the imagination are looked into. Percussion in particular percolates in the introductory moments of this quarter-hour piece. The clarinet keens along in fluttering melismas, and the pedal steel swoops in with smudges of color and sheets of sound, stretching the shape of the piece to wider planes and geometric permutations of the intervals. A slipstreaming clarinet weaves in and out and around the evolving sonic mobiles that wax and wane.

In "Ñett," the final movement, the pedal steel articulates some guitar-istic figures, and barely a minute in, the trio are in the throes of a denouement that unravels over another quarter hour to bring the triptych to a logical and poetically achieved conclusion. Egging each other on, the improvisers pool the pieces of their thoughts, while exploring their own individual lines of logic, in collective improvisation that draws some spontaneous appreciative woops from the audience. That triggers a passage of vocal expression in the band, before the resumption of more lyrical and contrapuntal threads that go on for a while, after which the trio gets riled up in bursts of distortion and squiggles and blasts. A hovering chord emerges, bringing an energetic resolution to the evening of music.



Susan Alcorn / Patrick Holmes / Ryan Sawyer: From Union Pool
Is Sold at Squidco!
Squidco




Comments and Feedback:



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

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Berlin Art Quartet (
Schubert /
Bauer /
Muller /
Bruggemann):
Live At MIM
(Unisono Records)



Jimmy Lyons:
Rivbea Live! Series,
Volume 3
(NoBusiness)



Erik Klinga:
Elusive Shimmer
(thanatosis produktion)



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



Brass Clouds:
Escape Vessels
(Bathysphere Records)



Fire! Orchestra:
Echoes
[2 CDs]
(Rune Grammofon)



Sophie Agnel /
John Edwards /
Steve Noble:
Three On A Match
(Otoroku)



Satoko Fujii
This is It! (
w/
Natsuki Tamura /
Takashi Itani):
Message
(Libra)



Sorry For Laughing (
G. Whitlow /
M. Bates /
Dave-Id /
E. Ka-Spel):
Rain Flowers
[2 CDS]
(Klanggalerie)



New Origin (
feat. Christoph Rocher /
Joe Fonda /
Harvey Sorge):
The Poet Walks
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Simon Nabatov:
Agree to Disagree
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Von Schlippenbach, Alexander /
Barry Altschul Quartet w/
Joe Fonda &
Rudi Mahal:
Free Flow
[2 CDs]
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Thelonious Monk with
Sonny Rollins:
1953 To 1957
Revisited
(ezz-thetics by
Hat Hut Records
Ltd)



Daniel Carter /
Ayumi Ishito /
George Draguns /
Ed Wilcox:
Makeshift Spirituals
(577 Records)



Kory Reeder:
Homestead
(Another Timbre)



John Cage:
Chamber Works 1943-1951
(Another Timbre)



Josh Sinton:
Couloir &
Book Of Practitioners
Vol. 2
Book "W"
[2 CDs]
(FiP recordings)



Elliott Sharp /
Scott Fields:
Reimsi Geara
(Relative Pitch)



KnCurrent (
Brennan /
Cooper-Moore /
Davis /
Hwang):
KnCurrent
(Deep Dish)



Biota:
Measured Not Found
(Recommended 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. (34662)