By Nick Metzger
I remember a long while back reading a review for a blistering solo free jazz album on Keith Fullerton Whitman’s now defunct Mimaroglu Web Store (thanks for everything Keith!) and he noted that solo albums like that really hit him between the eyes during the freezing winter months and I’ve thought of that every winter since. I also tend to listen to a lot of solo music during the post-holiday cold as I’m generally not as distracted with outdoor life and am able to listen a little more closely. That said, this year I've been loving this new solo trombone release from Philadelphia's Dan Blacksberg who’s trio has been covered a couple of times here on the blog. He was in the Hasidic doom metal band Deveykus with fellow Philadelphian, guitarist Nick Millevoi , releasing their only album Pillar Without Mercy on Tzadik back in 2013. Blacksberg is described on his website as “a living master of klezmer trombone” and in addition to being a dedicated proponent, teacher, and organizer of the music he also released the first album of klezmer to feature the trombone as the lead instrument on Radiant Others, also with Millevoi. The album currently under consideration here is not a klezmer album in the slightest. The Psychic Body/Sound System is a powerful improvised statement that blends wild soundscapes and drone with gnarled extended technique and commanding free trombone flights. The poetic fictionalizations of the titles are the perfect signage along the path, one that is craggy and steep but also imbued with some remarkable vistas.
The album starts off with “We Walk Through the Petrified Gates” - a brief, low drone that feels like an initiation - setting the tone. Next is “Tale of a Survival” a heady dialogue of solo free trombone where the staccato phrasing starts to slur and is interrupted by mumbled exclamations across the track, occasionally breaking down into violent and wet blasts of sound. On “Crags of Resounding Whispers” the thwacking churn of the horn is reminiscent of the chug of a huge pumping machine. The album's arguable centerpiece (for me) is “Observing the endless screamer” , this time on a prepared trombone. No idea what the preparations are but it would seem that Blacksberg opened some sort of portal. Endearing in much the same way that Merzbow is, it might require a bit of effort for some. Blacksberg does a considerable job of bending and directing these noises to make the track a standout on the album, it’s not just pure intensity but also arrangement, variety, and nuance. “Feeding the great babbler” is a brief segue in low frequencies - a lot lower than the previous track - it’s fast-paced and bulbous and pretty easy on the ears (mindful sequencing) with a lot to offer the careful listener. “Softgrid Lament” is built of growling, multiphonic passages recorded really dryly, so much so that the gurgling inner world of his trombone is central to the piece. It seats gnarly, aggressive exclamations at the same table with slow glissandos that sound like cartoon airplanes falling out of the sky.
The direct effect of being submerged is discernible on “Liquified tides of thought”, which conversely has the reverb cranked to 11. The stuttering passages ripple like water over rocks, closing in breathy resolution. On “Infinitely shattering crystal wishes” Blacksberg plays his horn into a prepared piano. Heavy tongue thwacks and high pitched whistles disturb the pressure field, causing the strings to answer, the track becoming more intense and violent as it progresses. “Gliding over the dimensional glacier” is another brief but continuous drone piece that puts the gauze back in our ears, again the sequencing is right on as this lull resolves into the brightness of the next track “Tale of refusing futility”. On this one Blacksberg plays with a raspy, cutting tone that blasts through in a haze of atomized spittle. Then Blacksberg puts down the magic wand momentarily and delivers a passage that’s aggressive and direct. The album closes with the “We exhale the gate closed”, another brief and murky drone that works as a bookend with the opening track. This is a good one, there’s a lot of variety in both technique and style and it’s a lot of fun to listen to. It's got a quality of its own and doesn’t sound like a solo trombone album in the sense you might expect. The detail and density keep the listening active and as a result it’s 40 minutes pass all too quickly.
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