Lebanese, Berlin-based experimental trumpeter Mazen Kerbaj is a man of many
gifts. He is a brilliant, non-conformist comic book artist, graphic
designer, highly inventive improviser, and founder of the experimental Lebanese
label Al-Maslakh and the Irtijal festival, who keeps expanding the sonic
spectrum of the trumpet. Now, 14 years after Kerbaj released his debut solo
album, Brt Vrt Zrt Krt (Al Maslakh, 2005), he returns with two solo albums
of the prepared trumpet that further cement his position as a serial
trumpet disrupter.
Mazen Kerbaj – Solo Trumpet Vol. 2.1 No Cuts, No Overdubs, No Use of Electronics (Discrepant, 2019) ***½
This is the ‘acoustic’ version of the solo trumpet, meaning what you hear
is what it is, with no cuts, overdubs or electronics. This album was
recorded over two days in Berlin on November and December 2016 and is
dedicated to Kerbaj’s close comrade, fellow-Lebanese guitarist Sharif
Sehnaoui, who plays with him in the “A” Trio, Karkhana group and the Johnny
Kafta Anti-Vegetarian Orchestra.
The sounds and other sonic assaults that you may hear on this album reflect
Kerbaj’s sober attitude towards the trumpet. He sees this instrument as no
more than an assemblage of various metal objects that serve as random means
to transfer air and breaths and generate weird series squawks, cackles,
howls and squeals, often mutated while using objects attached to the
trumpet mouthpiece or bell. Kerbaj sounds like he is enjoying rebelling against
the common phonetics and syntax of the trumpet and its brass instruments
legacy.
The nine pieces highlight Kerbaj’s singular arsenal of sounds that flirts
with raw, abstract noises, krautrock and industrial sounds of alien mutants
who may live underwater, or as the British Discrepant label prefers to
imagine it: like a restful humpback whale puffing on a hookah pipe at the
ocean’s deep end. But Kerbaj is not only a mad yet restful scientist of the
futurist trumpet. He has developed a radical mastery of the trumpet and
idiosyncratic extended techniques and vocabulary and he knows how to paint
arresting soundscapes, sketch tense cinematic narratives, and tell disturbed
sonic stories, always spiced with fine doses of dark humor. His ideas may
ignite tortured nightmares but also enrich and open your consciousness to
magnificent the universe of out-of-this-universe sounds. The last piece is
dedicated to the late Dutch composer and inventor of experimental
instruments Michel Waisvisz.
Mazen Kerbaj – Solo Trumpet Vol. 2.2 Cuts, Overdubs, Use of Electronics (Discrepant, 2019) ****
Vol. 2.2 suggests the ‘electric’ twin version of the solo trumpet project.
Kerbaj adds effects, loop pedals, overdubs and even a crackle synthesizer.
The five pieces were recorded in various locations, beginning in 2014 and
concluding on December 2018. Discrepant promises that the notion of being
transported to a mutant underwater alien community is still
effective but the restful whales enter now their meditative happy hour but
keep flirting with new unorthodox undercurrents.
Kerbaj knows how to create a deceiving aesthetics where nothing that may
tickle even the most experienced ears is what you wish it would be or the
manner it should sound. But if you are still here you are probably ready
for this revelatory trip and eager to meet again the beast from the deep.
And this beast is guaranteed to hypnotize you with its perverted dance
moves (“Dance Music For Lazy People”, “I’ll Be A Digital Bitch For You”),
evocative, polyphonic grooves (“Just The Three Of Us”) and seductive drones
(“I Always Dreamt To Be A Guitar Player”, “Dancing With Myself”) before
disappearing into darkest oceanic sink holes.
All pieces are delivered with a provocative sense of invention and healthy
irony. You may subscribe to the label advice and return again and again to
these albums searching for the doped up seal stranded in a phantom island,
appearing and disappearing as the music dictates it to.
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