Q:
You wanna play a little more?
Q:
…One piece or two?
A:
Whatever (inaudible) wanna do.
Similar
to last week’s excellent set at Myopic Books’ Experimental Music Series (see below), this
week’s trio set a course for the unknown. Josh Berman (cornet), Brian Labycz
(modular synthesizer), & Julian Kirshner (percussion) dove headfirst into
uncharted, improvised waters searching for sound and music. The film freak in
me sees this performance practice as music’s counterpart to Darryl Zero’s (Bill
Pullman in Zero Effect) philosophy on
private investigation: “A few words on looking for things: When you go looking
for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad. Because of all
the things in the world, you’re only looking for one of them. When you go
looking for anything at all, your chances of finding it are very good. Because
of all the things in the world, you’re sure to find some of them.”
The
trio was certainly a collective, but to this observer Berman felt, for most of
the set, somewhat “out front.” Maybe this is partially due to the nature of the
particular combination of instruments; or maybe it just happened to be the
dynamic this particular night. There can be reasons (sometimes undetectable to
the outside observer), but in situations like these this intermittent hierarchy
is simply a default of chance. Maybe, intrinsically, there’s a different dynamic
to a trio than within a duo (last week’s duo seeming a bit more balanced). Is
it harder to keep three things in balance than it is two? Not that an equal
balance is always, or should necessarily be, a goal. On the contrary, drama is often
found in the tipping of balances; The way certain things open up in film and
the theater when three characters create a triangle; like Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters or Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters.
From
fits and starts to more fluid sections, the musicians made nearly no pretense to
old school conventions. Berman, employing a wide range of tone and technique,
occasionally referenced more traditional phrases or spurts of bebop-tinged
licks. But the majority of the music making headed directly into the
non-idiomatic deep end. Berman’s horn careened from full, round-toned majesty
to complete arrhythmic/atonal growling and popping; often creating an effect
that sounded like wind scraping against itself.
The music moved back and forth from events that sounded more “chaotic” to moments that made more collective “sense.” Density,
speed, color, energy, volume, and texture seem to be the concerns of this music
– as opposed to more traditional components like harmony, rhythm, or form. However,
harmony, rhythm and form contain within them elements of these other concerns and
can be used to contribute to the building of these other landscapes. It’s as if
this music (or these musicians) is stripping away extraneous elements in trying
to get at the most elemental aspects of music; or even to a more elemental idea
outside of music through musical means. A kind of meta-music.
Labycz’s
modular synthesizer was a revelation to this writer/listener. I’d heard the
term but had never seen anyone perform on one. To look at, it recalls an old
school telephone switchboard. The sounds Labycz coaxed out of it through his
Roland keyboard amp ranged from traditional synth sounds a la Moog, to all
manner of electronic blips and gurgles. I expected to see a keyboard behind his
synth’s case when I peeked at it after the set, but the trigger mechanism was a
kind of smallish, elongated rod with a solid plastic strip running its length
one presses to activate (see end of video below to get a better idea). Possibly akin to a fretless neck versus fretted. One
could feel the restraint Labycz employed from the occasional volume audibly being
repressed from his Roland amp. For most of the set he seemed to intentionally
play a more supportive, underscoring role within the trio. Reacting in a
supportive manner in this fully open context is not an easy task. Labycz
created large, unique canvases for the group to play against. Seeing Labycz’s
instrument after the set, I immediately knew asking questions about its
hows/whats would be fruitless unless I had more time to process and probe his
answers. But it seemed he enjoys talking about this instrument. The amazing
duality of his modular synth is that it’s so electronically complex while
having the capacity to produce a sound that is so pure.
Completing
the trio is drummer Kirshner. Similarly to Labycz, he also seemed to focus mainly
on creating platforms for others to leap from or to be supported by during this
set. Kirshner created a particularly effective sonic backdrop by placing cymbals/gongs
on his low tom and whirling them about on its surface with a mallet. This
created a rather full and unusual effect to be placed under and against other
sounds.
Sets
of music like Berman/Labycz/Kirshner’s, and the previous week’s Jackson and
Fandino, have me looking forward to many more nights of intriguing,
experimental music at Myopic Books. This evening’s music was so engrossing I
almost forgot I was missing the beginning of Game 5 of the World Series… :)
Watch an excerpt from the first set:
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