Scott Sinclair / Jim Denley - Gleanings
CD from Half/theory / Splitrec (HALF16 / SPLITREC15)
Buy Now $12.00 from Half/theory
Half/theory 16 / Splitrec 15
Recorded at the UTS studios in Sydney May 2005 by Inge Olmheim, this duo finds Sinclair and Denley in a sprawling noisy, and much picked over area of activity - the guitar sax duo - but managing to sustain themselves with some overlooked discoveries.
Dariusz Roberte reviewing a recent Brisbane performance said..."Set 1 drones quirkily into our collective ears with a quixotic maze of sounds generated from a toy treasure box of articles, assisted by an asthmatic sax of cyclic breath pushing the molecules of sonority sometimes mellifluously, sometimes mischievously. Awash with the moaning and droning via laptop, we are swept up into the obscure vocabulary, some of it akin to foreign short-wave radio broadcasts. Squeals of terror and delight pervade the atmosphere; there is high-pitched static on all fronts. It's all amusement park eccentricity as the objects of torture or play are frenetically filling the air. Their respective clatter, murmur, sonic insinuation seem to dodge and collide with one another. This is a deranged jazzman caught in a film noir toy factory. Then an obscene phone call aria croaks in, and it's the end."
Reviews
From http://modisti.com/
A radical reinvention displays the process at close quarters, from a textural, almost tactile perspective. The layers behave as pulses of a marked organic ascendancy, portrayed in their tiniest detail, their flow distanced from previous concerns, more in keeping with a material interaction than with the linguistic articulation of the instrumental, raw matter rather than riddle. The sources function on two different, simultaneous levels: that of the real-time interaction and that of reflection, -a look going back to the processes, constantly returning, present through a distilled listening reflection. Both processes are indissolubly connected to one another, like face and back of a leaf and, as such, present an inevitable organic character.
From http://www.cyclicdefrost.com
Opening with a short span of silence, it doesn't take Gleanings long to unfold. Veteran winds player Denley lays out a rich spray of sound, his breath resonating through the walls of his instrument; guitarist Sinclair whirrs and tweaks around him. There's a crackling and a spattering of saliva – dry and wet takes on the same sound. It's surprisingly listenable. In fact, while the thought of litres of Jim Denley's saliva may suggest otherwise, Gleanings is actually one of the more polite sounding avant-garde/free-jazz recordings I've heard in quite a while – at least of those leaning toward the noise/atonality end of the spectrum. The pair's drones hover well within the favoured low- to mid-frequency range, producing a satisfying rustling that's almost comforting, while clanks and hums enter and depart with varying degrees of discreetness. Thin and subtle purrings duck and curve beneath the mass of detail. Gleanings also represents a fairly even balance between immediate, physical sounds and what I assume is digitally processed. In the wider realm of experimental music, it holds up well, due in large part to Denley's mouth-oriented contributions. A solid recording from two stalwarts of the improv scene. - Jon Tjhia
From Gaz-Eta
Let's be brutally honest now. Jim Denley is one of Australia's most crucial saxophone players. With his outstanding work with electronics guru Peter Blamey, trumpeter Axel Dorner and electronics/field recordings expert Joel Stern, he's already amassed an impressive body of work. Continuing in that tradition is his latest release on his own Split Records imprint. While I called Denley's duo with Peter Blamey a "dual improvised freak-scene show at its finest", I'm willing to up the ante this time around. Denley's textured sound here is all the more freakish. It's as if he were literally trying to outdo himself and see just how far he's capable of pushing the boundary. The popping sounds he makes with his insides resemble my 3 year old trying to pop plastic bubble wrap. It's that slow sound of air being released from enclosed confines. All the while, Scott Sinclair's take on his guitar is made up mostly of stroking the instrument's side, caressing the body and popping lightly on the strings. It sounds as if Sinclair placed some metal or wooden balls inside of his instrument's insides and let these play the lead role. Occasional moments of feedback and high-strung-out pitched sounds are done purposefully and with enough imagination to make repeat listening session worthwhile. I could sit and listen to Denley's slow intake of air for hours on end. The sound is that exciting. Don't mistake this duo for a noise fest. It's as far from that as night is from day. Rather, these two corral the tiniest sounds from the most common of instruments imaginable. Which once again proves the point - the journey is more interesting than the actual destination. - Tom Sekowski