The pointillist aesthetics of some free improvisation has always given it commonalities with early computer music and musique concrete on tape. However, free improvisation's tradition as a live music (even in recordings) has usually lent it quite a different recorded sound compared to the "electronic tape" ouvre. With Toot, Axel Dorner, Thomas Lehn, and Phil Minton may be bridging that divide.
This is not a CD to be savored on a stereo in transit, or in other settings with significant background noise. The music is closely miked, up front, and invites close listening. Unlike perhaps some improvisers, these players can survive the unforgiving microphones of a studio-like recording because of their level of musical precision. They seem to know exactly what they want to contribute at a given moment, and are able to pull it off.
This level of intention is particularly impressive on the part of Minton. Improvised vocalization often involves an element of feeling around for the right sound. But on this album Minton occasionally approximates the laser-like accuracy of, say, Christine Jeffrey on "Views from six windows." The singer does serve up plenty of his signature cartoon-inspired madness, too — it's just that the arid context requires him to carefully choose the placement of his antics.
Axel Dorner here well earns the trumpet's designation as a wind instrument. Besides his fascination with the burbling low end of the instrument, a lot of his playing involves breathing through its metal tubes. With its smorgasbord of rasps, whispers, and steam erupting from boileroom pipes, Dorner's playing often meshes almost inextricably from the output of Lehn's analog synths.
Lehn generally shies from the 50's science-fiction-isms of some analog synth players. His presence in the mix is mercurial. In one instant he is a truck passing half a mile away; in another he is a pile of paper clips being dumped onto marble. But his playing largely seems to create the space within which Lehn and Minton react and interact. The strategy works beautifully.
While this album does not have the freewheeling character of some improvisation, it more than compensates by reveling in pure sound. These players display a tantalizing palette of sonic colors and masterfully fit them into a satisfying mosaic.
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