Beauties (n/n 023) from the American label Neither/Nor Records which has showcased many primo examples of US free improv and jazz related items, but today’s beatific vision is largely European by nature, recorded in Norway and heavy on the Norwegian contingent…Beam Splitter is the duo of Audrey Chen (the great Chinese-American voxist and player with lungs of gold) and Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø…trombone supplemented with vitamins from the electronic bottle…we heard them sanding down the surfaces of the oyster-house on their Rough Tongue item from 2017, and though they don’t record much as a duo we seem to have missed Split Jaw on Tripticks Tapes from 2023. The other twosome are Eivind Lønning and Espen Reinertsen with their trumpet and tenor sax, likewise boosted by a little electronic enhancement…are we seeing another micro-revival of the electro-acoustic improvisation thing?
This 2021 date captures the four at Flerbruket in the Norwegian countryside, where they recorded it in an old school house made of wood. The musicians themselves wore wooden suits to get into the spirit of the session, during lunch breaks they gnawed the floorboards, and if anyone fluffed a take then they hit the recording engineer over the head with a two-by-four. Timber abounds in that part of the world – be it the Norway spruce or the Scots pine. They also split off into four separate rooms, which is the kind of thing that mixing engineers like to do so they can get a “clear signal” in their “cans”. So even though the recording and performances sound close-knit and intimate, in reality nobody could see what the other three were doing. This may account for the general “where-am-I” ambience that permeates the Beauties album, with its oddly-unnatural sounds and shapes, compelling micro-drones and fizzes which are still tied to human reality because of one common factor, that of breath. Naturally Audrey Chen’s contributions emanate the most oxygen-components, but since the other three players are all hefty puff-blow types, it’s that natural rhythm that underpins most of the murmuring waves and reminds us that music hasn’t yet been taken over by invading aliens, and it must start and end with a human body at the centre.
Of the two long bouts, you might like ‘Vessel’ with its intimations of going on board a sailing ship bound for the moon, or perhaps the vessel is full of wine, or it’s another human body (the body as a vessel for living), or it refers to the blood circulation. The second portion ‘Full Moon’ could be characterised by additional whimpering sounds, whistles, sobs, and sighs as though Audrey Chen were indeed turning herself, under the full moon, into the werewolf she’s always dreamed of being, while the three brass wielders are likewise calooting and grawling on their verbo-horns in sympathy with the chosen “spirit animal” pathway. More drama per square mile on ‘Full Moon’, but the introverted closet blanket of ‘Vessel’ is more suitable for a long voyage. Nature photos on cover and inside by the Beam Splitters. Great. (24/10/2023)