Blog : Posting My Own Reviews. Well Someone Has To.

posting my own reviews. well someone has to.

Joel Stern/Anthony Guerra - Outdoor Bowers
Pseudoarcana PA069
Admirers of "Stitch" by this same duo (and who out there isn't?): don't hesitate; "Outdoor Bowers" is every bit as enjoyable. Even if you have a rough idea of what to expect—and you might not be far wrong—the blend of Stern's field recordings and electronics, rough-edged and often harsh, with Guerra's guitar, always carrying a melodic undercurrent regardless of any surface noise deployed, is one of the delicious pleasures of contemporary improvised music. The interweaving, for example, of bird song, especially prickly static, spartan rubbings and object-droppings and astringent but plaintive guitar feedback, the basic components of the opening track, is simply and entirely convincing, sounding as "natural" as one could imagine. The guitar takes on a kind of continuo role, reminding me of, of all things (here he goes again) those ultra-slowed down versions of Pachelbel's Canon that Eno created way back when. But grainier and maybe better. The harsher still, very unsilent "old whitechapel silence" mixes rolling, bouncing objects in (perhaps) metal bowls with massively abrasive, skin-rending feedback only partially mollified by rain patter before an abrupt and entirely in character sliced off ending. The gentler, virtually pastoral "rainy day woman #5", all soft clatter 'n' hums subtly looped, leads into "avierys" [sic], my favorite of four strong works. It's one of those pieces that just does its thing, here consisting of those birds again, a ratcheting, rough section of backwards (I think) tape that lumbers and lurches, stopping short brutally enough that you think the disc is skipping, airplane engines and Guerra's willfully naïve guitar evoking, perhaps, a carnival's calliope. It goes on until it's finished and is then clipped off without sentiment. A very fine recording.

Joel Stern/Jim Denley - Tape and Paint Game
Splitrec CDR 9
Stern's collaboration with alto saxophonist Jim Denley (who also contributes field recordings and other electronically-oriented work) is a tougher haul, Guerra's balancing lyricism being replaced by an approach every bit as raw as Stern's. The saxophone, when it can be picked out of the mix is usually—and unsurprisingly--played as a tube of blown-into metal with pop-able keys, though there are occasional forays into multiphonics that, today, almost come off as old-fashioned! The structure of the pieces, eight of them over some 42 minutes, is blockier, much less inclined to the continuous nature of the work on "Outdoor Bowers" though the ones that come through most strongly for my ears are those (like "ancho-rubbed ground") with some sort of steady thread woven in, even if (especially if) that thread mutates from static to hum to music box. But you're often confronted with sharp cessations of activity followed by 90 degree turns into something else. There's a whole bunch of satisfying crunchiness to be found here, a lot of good noise nutrition—even the birds put in a brief reappearance! If, at the end of the day, I find myself more drawn to the first disc, it's simply because I find that particular combination of talents uniquely rewarding. Both recordings are easily worth the purchase as Stern continues to forge onward, one fascinating collection of sounds after another.

written by Brian Olewnick
copied and pasted from
http://www.bagatellen.com

Added by joel on 11 April 2006