Volume II: Teaterhuset Avant Garden, 2006​-​05​-​12

from Archive: Volumes I–V: 2005–2009 by The Seen

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Settling in. The audience member, presented with a largish gathering of improvising musicians, here numbering nine, anticipates potential problems. One has to do with volume and activity level, knowing that it’s all too easy to heighten each and develop a comfortable enough matrix of sound in which pretty much anything goes but, more often than not, leaving the listener temporarily sated but essentially undernourished. Another is resigned acquiescence into a general flow, a “getting along” mentality that, while perhaps pleasant, engenders a bland, self-satisfied atmosphere, ideas going unchallenged. In this performance, you hear the musicians casting about at first, seeking not just common but fertile ground. Eventually, a quasi-static, almost ritual atmosphere prevails, the latter enhanced by the clear ringing of a small bell, although there’s always an amount of agitation occurring, peeking through subtly at first. It’s a healthy kind of uncomfortable stasis, the possibility of revolt always present. Indeed, at approximately the 28 minute mark, such an uprising occurs, a small eruption containing loopy electronics and harsh surface rubbings. To these ears, it’s appropriately quelled but I’m happy it had the chance to take place, glad that premises were questioned; better to risk trouble than ensuring vanilla goodness. Things simmer down, the explosion dissipating into sets of small taps and rustles, the calmer, singing long tones once again presiding, perhaps newly energized by the prior activity, acquiring needed complexity and ambiguity. The nine musicians grow ever more insubstantial, sublimating into the room, ultimately reappearing as small birds in the sky. — Brian Olewnick

credits

from Archive: Volumes I–V: 2005–2009, released November 27, 2018
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Mark Wastell: tam tam
Wolfgang Fuchs: record players
Bertrand Denzler: saxophones
Angharad Davies: violin
Burkhard Beins: percussion
Graham Halliwell: feedback saxophone
Tomas Korber: electronics
Benedict Drew: electronics
Dominic Lash: double bass

Recorded in concert by David Reid at Teaterhuset Avant Garden, Trondheim, Norway on 2006-05-12.

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