In my review of yesterday on recent and recommendable "Sax and Piano" albums, I should have added this one, by Christine Sehnaoui on alto and Magda Mayas on piano. The only excuse that I have for not having included them, is that this album, "Teeming", does not sound like a piano and sax album.
Both musicians are known for pushing the sound of their instruments into extreme and unheard regions, and together they even go a step further. Few people would call this music, and several years ago I would have put this album away immediately, but I've become addicted to this kind of music.
The reason is simple: the music is incredibly brutal, physical and emotional. Possibly because the sounds go directly to the lymbic system of the brain, stripped of all rationality, patterns and form and other redundant stuff, reduced to scraping, fluttering, pounding, whistling, sighing, screeching, ticking, tweaking, ... hesitating between the industrial and the organic in atmosphere, but impossible to leave you indifferent: you hate it or you love it.
To the credit of both artists, their story is incredibly coherent and captivating, once you go beyond your own expectations. Break down your own preconceived notions. They are great because they inventive, their sense of pace and tension and restraint is formidable, never do they lose their concentrated discipline of sound creation, creating a weird and welcoming sonic environment, light, horrifying and yet appealing.
Those of you with big open ears will certainly enjoy this.
Buy from the label.
© stef
1 comment:
I agree with your critique - except thatt I do not hear any "horror".
Instead it's more like an alien mind - maybe in love...
For me it belongs to my top ten 2010.
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