The Performances (GGGR-125) LP by James Fella and Gabriella Isaac comes from a live date in 2019 – the American label Gilgongo Records held a 15th-year anniversary for themselves. Fella started the label in 2004 and has been releasing his own solo records there since 2009.
He teamed up with Gabriella Isaac to make CCTK Music in 2021 – that one had an all-red cover, this one is all yellow – and to kick off the activities here they decided to “rework” that album and repurpose it, using “reference lacquers” as part of a live collaged performance. This is followed by a solo cut from each performer – I think Gabriella Isaac does it using her laptop to make feedback loops as well as generating sounds through that Apple product, while James Fella opts for using an old-school tape machine. John Wiese did the recording and mastering; perhaps seeing his name here is what raised my hopes for passionate and blood-filled noise, of which Wiese is a past master. Instead, Performances comes up rather tame, turgid, and soggy. On the surface, the textures and effects are quite rich, but I’m just not sensing enough of a powerful dynamic driving the churning actions. I shan’t say that they’re letting their machines do all the heavy lifting, but there’s insufficient input from the imagination department, meaning much of the music just meanders along. Isaac’s solo turn has moments where she almost lets fly with something impassioned and gestural, but it never develops into a full-blown assault. Fella’s electro-acoustic piece has evidence of engagement with his capstans and knobs, but he’s hampered by the slow pace he sets for himself, weighed down by his own lack of direction, and the fiddly actions from his fingertips start to sound like doodling. Dull. (28/03/2023)