Ziv Taubenfeld's Full Sun - Out of the Beast Came Honey (Clean Feed, 2022)

By Vid Jeraj

There is something thrillingly daring beneath the timbral streams of „Cold Wood”, an opening track of „Out of the Beast Came Honey”, a second release of an Amsterdam-based sextet Full Sun that involves some of the crescent city's most daring players, namely, Onno Govaert on drums and Michael Moore on reeds. Bass-clarinet and composer of Israelian descent Ziv Taubenfeld debuted with Full Sun on Multikulti records from Poland few years ago. Next to Taubenfeld's bass-clarinet and Michael Moore's alto sax, the overall atmosphere is emphasized by murky frontline of Joost Buis' trombone, and restrained pianism of Nico Chantieroli with Omer Govreen on double bass.

Known for his work with various Amsterdam projects, Taubenfeld has recently relocated to Lisbon. Skillwise, he showcases quite anti-Dolphean [sic] intentions in terms of what the soloists usually provide on bass-clarinet. No overtones and altissimo work here, the multiphonics are mainly employed in the middle register.

In a recently closed Konfrontationen Festival, sextet evolved into an octet and went for a landmine concert. This year's festival edition was dedicated to premature passing of border-crossing pianist, composer, improviser and instrument builder Cor Fuhler, also known as arranger with a „what if” hunch. In terms of genre-hopping, it was Taubenfeld's bold idea to bring a Senegalese griot Dudu Koyate to an otherwise chamber setting, reminiscent of risks taken by Fuhler's Corkestra.

Otherwise, Full Sun's drony melodies delve towards the margins of feeling of 'eerie', something „not here”, although it quite could have been, just like an elegy of Co-Vid's bodycount if you want. With „Spider Jungle” as much as „Andalus Fig Tree”, compositions rooted in Third Stream and coated in those surreal 11 PM dusks, this composer shouldn't be short of film music requests. Maybe also something else.

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About: 

Next to being a member of Croatian Composers Society, Vid Jeraj produced and promoted concerts in Močvara and Vinyl in Zagreb, next to organising slam-poetry events with Impro Con festival. As a writer, Jeraj released pioneering works of Balkan new weird in novel, poetry and prose. His first work, a travelogue from the concert of Braxton, Szabados and Tarasov was published by Paris Transatlantic in 2003.

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