XAVIER CHARLES / KRISTOFF K. ROLL
La Pièce
(Potlatch) Used CD $8.00
Dynamic headphone music from 1999 by French electroacoustic duo and clarinetist who can get it on via noise electroacoustics or sound poetry. See-sawing violin sample glides through a quiet storm of bowed cymbals, tiny skittering sounds and gestural clarinet that generally offers up timbres rather than melodic lines.
Two Rags
(Potlatch - 12.00) Used CD $12.00
Rowe’s use of almost ambient noise and circulating guitar loops lay out a calmness,” notes All Music Guide, “And Parker acts accordingly, playing free but without disturbing the soul. Bits of gray noise float in…, a radio searches for a station, all the while Parker (on tenor throughout) keeps the peace. It is easy to be lulled into this music, but don’t mistake their … pacific nature for anything less than complex improvisations. In the relative quiet there is fury.” From 2000
Ur Lamento
(Potlatch) Used CD $8.00
This French improvising trio explores odd tonal contrasts via intersecting micro-themes. Laurent Dailleau on theremin brings subversive sounds and droning effects. David Chiesa’s cyclical arco bass passages mesh with clarinetist Isabelle Duthoit’s squeaking lines. Repulsive screams, altered voices, and sundry noises pepper frenetic exchanges and oscillating frameworks. From 2002.