Zoh Amba, Chris Corsano, Bill Orcutt – The Flower School (Palilalia Records, 2023)

 

By Guido Montegrandi

Chris Corsano and Bill Orcutt have a well consolidated history of playing and recording together as a duo (Brace Up from 2018, and Made Out Of Sound from 2021, for example) and more recently the two released Play at Duke that presents their concert from April 22 at the 21st Anniversary Festival at Duke University for the Three Lobed Records. Additionally, in recent months, Corsano and Zoh Amba have been playing together as a duo on various occasions. So, it seems almost natural that the three of them have ended up in a recording studio together.

“Inviting a third person to the party could threaten a slowly cultivated balance—whether between Orcutt and Corsano or Corsano and Amba—but in this case the addition only heightened various dichotomies: soft vs. loud, bruising vs. tender, furious vs. lyric.” (notes to the record)

And indeed dichotomies seems a key word to describe how these three musicians meet to exchange ideas and sounds and stories, well ready to react to the goading of their companions, acting to add balance ... or to take it to the extreme ... or to lead astray ... or to uphold every note.

'What emptiness do you gaze upon!': the tenor pursues single notes and short phrases over the circular beating of the drum and static arpeggios, chords and chiming notes. The three of them seem to follow closely parallel pats that find their crossing when in the end silence comes creeping.

'The Flower School' sounds almost like a Corsano/Amba dialogue over a subtle drone provided by Orcutt. Here the sax provides long melodic sounds coupled by a crescendo of the drums that progressively grows rhythmic and expansive. The final sound is a lonely guitar drone.

In these two pieces, Orcutt seems to be in his “carpet-of-sound mode,” with the aim of creating an environment for Amba and Corsano to grow their sonic plants.

'Sweet one' is a guitar duo with Amba playing acoustic guitars arpeggios while Orcutt moves around creating an “echoic chamber” full of angles and reflections. The atmosphere is quite close to one of the small pieces for guitar and voice and sax or flute that you may find on Amba’s youtube channel.

'The morning light has flooded my eyes': here we go again, the guitar offers a lightly distorted ostinato coupled by responsive drumming. Long blown phrases surround this construction as the sax enters in a tight conversation with the guitar. This is probably the piece that carries the closest memories to the late 60s free music. Here, Corsano's drumming is simply perfect. Then suddenly it all calms down as the sounds become long and lyric and flow almost seamlessly into the final piece, 'Moon Showed But No You,' a sax and guitar duo in which a crooked sax melody is sustained by interrupted rhythmic arpeggios and spacious notes.

When the music is over, we retain the impression of a powerful yet subtle record with three musicians who have found their chemistry creating neat intersections and leaving each other enough space for their individual visions to become a collective creation.

You can listen and buy it on Bandcamp.