Discovered in a box of recordings in BPA's possession, this recording from 2003 restores a stimulating freely improvised studio encounter between then-West Coast frequent collaborators, double bassist Damon Smith and percussionist Gino Robair, in a trio with Austrian alto saxophonist & bass clarinetist Tanja Feichtmair, mastered to pristine quality by Weasel Walter.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2021 Country: USA Packaging: Cardboard sleeve Recorded at 1510 Studios in Oakland, California, on August 11th, 2003, by Scott R. Looney.
"This recording from 2003 literally fell out of a box. I put the CDR on as a curiosity and was impressed by the playing as well as the beautiful recording quality. Weasel Walter's mastering sharpened it even further.
We lost the great Sicialian double bassist Lelio Giannetto this year. Gino and I met him in Palermo in 1998. Gino did these two beautiful drawings in his memory that are the cover art for this album. I played my first "proper" improvised music concert with Gino, along with Marco Eneidi. For various reasons, we never got a proper album out together in a small group like this.
Tanja is a fantastic and original alto saxophonist and bass clarinetist from Ulrichsburg, Austria. We used english translations of the Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachman for the titles.
While I do have a nice archive of live recordings to work from it is rare to find a pristine studio recording like this."-Balance Point Acoustics
"Recordings are by their very nature an imperfect medium for historical measure. As fixed points in time they can only illustrate development by comparison. Connections and inferences made by these means are bound to leave out information and so conclusions must be qualified. The Shrilling of Frogs is one such connective dot, rescued and refurbished from bassist Damon Smith's tape cache in a fortuitous moment when it literally in his words, "fell out of a box."
It's evocative of time in his career when he was deeply embedded in the improvised music community of Oakland, California. Percussionist Gino Robair was a regular confrere. Austrian reedist Tanja Feichtmair was presumably visiting. The trio booked some studio time and improvised thirteen pieces of music. English translations from the work of Austrian author Ingeborg Bachman served as track titles. Weasel Walter took a crack at mastering the session and improved on the already impressive original acoustics that retain every tweak, torque and twist alongside even the quietest creak or murmur.
Much of the music embodies a three-way conversation. Smith and Robair overlap in their exploitation of bowed surfaces. Bass strings vibrate from applied bow while cymbal edges sing with application scraped and rubbed objects. Feichtmair often gets remarkably close to these sonorities by altering her embouchure and constricting exhalation of breath. Tones and drones of varying lengths layer and elide to create undulating waves of striated sound. Similarities to European Free Improvisation past and then-present are arguable, but the trio works studiously within their own cul de sac without feeling derivative or repetitive.
Smith is careful to note the age and circumstances of the recording, but doesn't attach any other firm ascriptions other than to bemusedly reflect that it's rare to find such an aurally-immaculate artifact. That summation ends up an insightful analogue to the music, which is indicative of a specific place and time, but not necessarily representative of anything beyond that specificity. Taken on those refreshingly open-ended terms, it's an hour-exactly, well spent."-Derek Taylor, Dusted Magazine