LDL (Urs Leimgruber / Jacques Demierre / Thomas Lehn)
In The Endless Wind
WIDE EAR RECORDS WER076 CD (2024)
Free improvisation. Swiss musicians Leimgruber and Demierre here with the German synth player of renown, Lehn. The plan here has involved some engineering feat that allows the two keyboards (Demierre’s piano and Lehn’s analogue synthesiser) to remain shackled together by rings of audio steel, resulting in “mutual sound processing”. Somewhere in the imaginary centre of this studio is perched the soprano saxophone of Swiss maestro Leimgruber.
I kept hoping for a bit more interaction, engagement, and impolite jostling from these grooves, but the keynote of the day was “respectful listening” as all three of these players leaned in to the “listening space” as deeply as the human frame allows, and responded to acoustic nuances in the charge atmosphere. During the 34-minute opener, I admit I like the vivid recorded sound, and the vast white spaces between the notes, but the actual playing feels stiff and forced. A shade more dynamism and cross-fire action can be found on the second cut, where the mutual influencer-wrangler mode of the two keyboards is more in evidence, although still very subtle and maybe a bit too rarefied. Too much poise, not enough flexion.
By the time we reach the near-desolation of track three, the sheer alienation is practically existential. Even my personal hero Lehn, known as a bold explorer of wild synthetic noise, disappoints today. But if you like your improv music cold, intellectual, and rigidly abstract, feel free to bend an ear. (16/05/2024)