First meetings between British pianist Matthew Bourne and Norwegian drummer Emil Karlsen, two intrepid and like-minded improvisers using unusual techniques, preparations, inside playing and unusual percussive sources that fuel technically superb performances from both musicians, heard in six improvisations informed by masterful skill and creative drive.
The Embalmer documents one of Karlsen and Bourne's first meetings. Recorded in a single session in 2020, The Embalmer sees a wide-ranging musical discourse between the two musicians unfold in its most lean form across the six improvised tracks.
Matthew Bourne is a recipient of numerous awards and accolades, and possesses an inventive and unique artistic approach for bringing infirm pianos back to life in Songs From A Lost Piano, collaborating with classical musicians of the London Sinfonietta in Written/Unwritten, the acclaimed solo piano albums, Montauk Variations, Isotach, and Désinances; and reinterpretations of Amon Tobin's work for Ninja Tune. Other projects include Radioland; a live reworking of Kraftwerk's Radio-Activity album (in collaboration with Franck Vigroux & Antoine Schmitt), solo synthesiser album moogmemory; and Nightports w/Matthew Bourne. Bourne's work has appeared on compilations by Bonobo and Hot Chip, and featured in Paolo Sorentino's 2018 film LORO. Bourne's current musical focus as a collaborator has been with Keeley Forsyth
Emil Karlsen (b.1998) is a Norwegian improvising drummer currently based in the UK. Described as a "significant addition to the UK free jazz scene" and an "exceptional improv drummer", he's establishing himself on the improvised music circuit working the span from free improvisation to free jazz. Occupied with exploring the timbral and sonic possibilities of the drum kit, he performs with Philipp Wachsmann, Matthew Bourne, Phil Durrant, Ed Jones, and the London Improvisers Orchestra to mention some.
"This is a piano duo. Of Emil Karlsen, a young drummer from London also involved in the London Improvisers Orchestra, and Matthew Bourne, also from London, a seasoned pianist with a long list of collaborations, featuring Tony Bevan , Gilad Atzmon, and even Keith Tippett. As noted somewhere else recently, not all instruments go together too well, and especially the percussive character of percussion may or may not work well with more continuous noise from strings or wind instruments. At least it requires some composer- and musicianship to make them blend in ways that are a pleasure to listen to.
Now, the piano could also be considered 'percussive' in a way. John Cage showed some of the way with the 'prepared piano' pieces, and the simple fact that a tone is struck and then dies away is similar enough to other percussive sounds. Bourne explores this to a high degree in these recordings, using a broad range of ways to influence the piano sound by obviously damping strings, playing them by hand or simply gripping them and modifying the sound. Six pieces evolve around tight interplay between Bourne and Karlsen, edging each other on, duetting in the best sense, and delivering an intense free jazz - or should I say contemporary classical set of music.
The recordings were made in 2020 during a single session at which the musicians met a first time in a studio. Everything is improvised and albeit the novelty in the meeting, sports a dense, fresh and to-the-point mood. I mentioned classical music as some parts remind of twelve-tone passages that Keith Emerson used, as he lifted them from modern classical composers. Or fleeting phrases of jazzy play. But a lot is rather more 'free music' that changes between delicate melodic fragments up to the racket of 'The Fool's ending, that could be a Merzbow cover played by Zeitkratzer. Effectively one of the best contemporary jazz recordings I have heard lately."-RSW, Vital Weekly