Nate Wooley & Paul Lytton - Creak Above 33 (Psi Recordings, 2010) ****

Three years after their debut on Broken Research, trumpeter Nate Wooley and percussionist Paul Lytton release a second album. This is the kind of "music" that puts all definitions of the term into question. The trumpet doesn't sound like a trumpet, the percussion doesn't sound like percussion. Both musicians, both artists try to find a common language, one that surpasses the limitations of their instruments. Hence the trumpet's voice dissappears into long whispering sounds, or short bursts, hence the percussion does not offer a beat or a rhythm, yet more often than not conjures up long screeching sounds, or even whispering sounds too, coming close to the trumpet. The dialogue is minute, very abstract, yet also incredibly intense. This is all about listening, and making sure that the dialogue becomes possible over and above the differences.

Music can be defined as "organised sound", but here you can even question the "organisation" part of it, since the dialogue evolves in a quite organic, open way, without any preconceptions.
It is only on the last piece that both instruments fall back on their more known voice, and the intensity only increases through it, what was implicit becomes explicit, what was happening under and around the silence, now breaks through it, but only for a while, the voices are muted again, the intensity maintained, the silence gaining in momentum and power.
Open ears are required for this intense adventure.

© stef