There is something particular about listening to a committed collaborator playing solo. While such musicians as Derek Bailey and Joelle Leandre ' two of the primary proponents of the musical language also spoken by the late bassist Peter Kowald ' were also established soliloquists, Kowald was committed to the art of conversation, tirelessly traveling the world looking for new people to talk with.

Kowald recorded the solo session that would become Open Secrets in January, 1988, the beginning of what would be a significant year for him. His tour schedule would take him from his home in Germany to places as far as Japan, India and New Zealand, as well as the United States. He was hired to perform in the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Seoul. He would record with Bailey and Leandre, as well as Han Bennink, Jeanne Lee and Marilyn Mazur, sessions that would later be heard on his two seminal volumes of Duos, released by FMP. His date book might not have been entirely filled out yet, but he must have felt the conviction of possibility, the pull of seizing the day.

The nine tracks here are, in a sense, a series of exercises, working through bowing techniques, harmonics, multiphonics, pizzicato melodies and extended vocal styles. But to see the performances to simple studies would be to undermine the depth in Kowald's playing. Each track is a full scene, not a rehearsal but a realization. The album opens with "Peek at World", a charming sequence of two-steps-forward-one-step-back melodies titled with an anagram of his name, and closes with "Ina Samu Dessu [Mi Tsu Ni]", a brief piece which finds Kowald accompanying himself on bass against his guttural throat singing. Inclusive with the tracks between, they make for a wonderful self-portrait of the artist.