Solo upright bass improvisations and compositions from Nils Vermeulen on his variations (ASPEN EDITIES Aspen016) LP. Some bass players might have taken the opportunity to showcase their “extended technique”, or push unusual scraping and cloinking sounds to the fore, but not our Belgian friend, whose watchword for the day is “accessibility”.
‘On Hirohito’s Famous Win’ is melodic and enjoyable lite-classical, and while ‘For Scodanibbio’ may include raunchy plucks and stabs, they’re certainly not deployed in the service of abrasive or dissonant music. I take note of the player’s great sensitivity and discrimination when it comes to acoustical nuances; he recorded his solo turn at the Ghent Opera while it was empty, so that “every note, attack and vibration comes through, including the creaking of the wooden floor.” Even his strings (‘Tempera’ strings made by Gerold Genssler) come from a lineage of traditional gut strings, another hallmark of his hand-woven authenticity and commitment to his craft, and he’s slung his tuning especially to enable freely resonating strings.
Vermeulen does get vaguely avant on ‘On Integration’, but even as he tries to follow the trend towards rigourous minimalism, he still can’t help forming tunes and he can’t help filling spaces. Neither Bruno Duplant, Hannes Lingens, or d’incise are likely to select Nils Vermeulen for any of their projects in the near future, but on the other hand, he did appear on those Tonus records by Dirk Serries in 2018. Superficially a very user-friendly album of music results, but also deficient in tension, heat, or engagement. (28/04/2023)