Real nice trio improvisation from the very extreme end of the scale. Sent here by Jason Kahn from his Zurich address. Called simply Köln (EDITIONS 013) and released in an edition of 200 copies with a hand-painted cover on cardboard. Kahn is credited with “electronics”, joined by Frantz Loriot with his viola and Christian Wolfarth on percussion. French player Loriot and Swiss Wolfarth have teamed up before, for instance on the recent Der Verboten LP, and if we know anything about these austere players, what typifies them is a stern, close-lipped approach to musical communication, here turned into a fine art form as they meet up with our polymath friend Kahn and for the most part all three spend many tense moments carefully circling around each other, like wild beasts. I keep waiting for the moment when the taut limbs will pounce, the razor-like claws will flash, and the shorn pelts will fly in the air. But this music doesn’t exactly offer that kind of conventional payoff, and keeps the listener in a continual state of expectation for 32:34 mins, stretched out on the rack of uncertainty. The few sounds which do reach our ears are deliciously uncomfortable and unfamiliar, and you have to work as hard as a filtration unit in a phosphene factory to extract a kernel of pleasure from these tough nuts. You’ll be lucky if you go home with an eggcup full of mercy, but you’ll be grateful for that. (15/05/2023)
