Martin Taxt
Second Room
NORWAY SOFA MUSIC SOFA588 CD (2022)
Here is a dynamic album of minimal drone music that uses the composer’s self-imposed limitations to excellent effect. Conceptually, we are presented with relationships between music and architecture. Martin Taxt performs with microtonal tuba, and is joined by Rolf Erik Nystrom on alto saxophone, church organist Laura Marie Rueslatten, double bassist Inga Margrete Aas and Peder Simonsen playing the other microtonal tuba, and modular synthesiser. Additionally, all the players are equipped with handbells. Not just one microtonal tuba, but two! My day just got double-good! Martin Taxt is inspired by the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto – whose approach is based on the idea that “buildings should be designed around human behaviour”, and who designed the 2013 Serpentine Pavilion in London – Taxt creates a structure built to withstand the strongest seismic energy an ensemble of church organ, microtonal tubas, saxophone, double bass and modular synth can generate. It’s worth quoting Taxt’s intriguing approach:
“…A grid system with 36 pitches was the starting point…Imagining the grid as a cave, I made 3 different paths…as if I was exploring the cave. These three melodies became the outline…On [the final part] the musicians are exploring the 36 pitches independently, as if, quoting Fujimoto; finding their own small favourite comfortable places inside the natural cave…”
On “Cave vs Nest”, the result is something really rather beautiful and engrossing. I found myself pulled in to Taxt’s sound world immediately. Towards the end of this piece you can practically feel the music physically forcing itself into your brain. Taxt’s impetus is to attempt “…a series of works investigating possible relations between music and architecture…” and I think if played back on a nice, high-quality system at a reasonably high volume, this album could carve life-size structures out of the very aether around us. I particularly enjoy the section of “Swelling Forms of Domes” where Peder Simonsen’s modular synth appears. It’s such a bright contrast to the previous dark material, but it fits beautifully. Simonsen worked closely with Taxt to compose the modular synthesiser parts and knowing how unpredictable the behaviour of modular or eurorack equipment can be, I think they have achieved something very unique and beautiful in its simplicity and pertinence.
After the density of “Swelling Forms of Domes”, the third piece, “Paving Seen From Above”, breaks out the handbells and is a much lighter proposition because of it. The bells are joined by modular synth and could be processed in some way. The bells exist in a very wide stereo field which gives a natural sense of space. A repeated melodic motif emerges while spacious reverb coats the seemingly randomised synth activity. Presently, the tubas resurface having filled their gills with as much longform H2O as they could squeeze in between their putty-like valves. The final piece, “Disruption, disjunction, deconstruction” resolves the album as a whole, with split tones, moving microtonal beating and drones. Very satisfying. Relaxation music for wartime. A great release from a reliable label; for fans of drone music, Minimal, ambient or modern composition. Highly recommended.