MW768 Anthony Braxton, Chris Dahlgren - ABCD

Hi-Fi Download (flac format) from Not Two Records.

Tracklist:
1. No.316 - version a (with Falling River musics) [14:48]
2. Penumbra for woodwind(s) & bass(es) 4+2 [08:34]
3. No.316 - version b (with Falling River musics) [12:32]
4. Penumbra for woodwind(s) & bass(es) 3+3 [08:46]
5. No.316 - version c (with Falling River musics) [06:17]
6. Penumbra for woodwind(s) & bass(es) 1+1 [08:34]
7. No.316 - version d (with Falling River musics) [12:52]
8. Penumbra for woodwind(s) & bass(es) 4+1 [08:34]

Line-up:
Anthony Braxton - sopranino, soprano, Eb & F alto, baritone & bass saxophones, Bb clarinet
Chris Dahlgren - double bass, preparations and electronics

Recorded at Wesleyan University, CT, USA July 5 & 6, 2003

Review:
No need to present Braxton to users of this site. And here, nothing new - except the use of a saxophone in C. Braxton, as usual, ensures the transition (with a few years late ...) between Webern and Bird. And his triumph is to be able to give an unparalleled emotion to a completely abstract material. But for this recording, we must certainly thank Dahlgren for helping to give a life sensitive to this matter from Braxton's brain. Because the preparation of the bass as the introduction of effects pedals and the use of electronics greatly enrich the vocabulary of Braxton's recordings, the atmosphere can then go from free improvisation abstract or energetic to the ( harsh) noise as we knew it from the duet with Wolf Eyes. The richness of the game of this marvelous contrabassist (from the sweet pizz to the violence of certain phrasings with the bow), just like the duet with Joe Morris, makes it possible to rediscover in another angle the talent of Braxton and to give him some form youth, offering the latter a new palette on which to deploy, a new interlocutor who changes the discourse (if music is a language ...).
Last note: half of the disc is composed of superposition of several recordings, as could John Butcher or Evan Parker in some of their solo albums. This technique gives us the chance to hear multiple voices that are only one, so while seemingly the structure of the pieces is hierarchical and vertical, we are actually dealing with only one person who is offered to us in multiple colors while remaining an identifiable unit. In fact, apparent ecclectism and the heterogeneity (especially of timbre) of this dialogue are nothing but the multiple ramifications (baroque?) Of the two consciences at the origin of this work.
(review courtesy of http://improv-sphere.blogspot.com/)