The Scotch of St. James – Live at AMPLIFY 2004: Addition
Confront Collectors Series CCS2
Mark Wastell is a good example of how the newer strains of improvised music value the quality and variety of sounds created above the historical language of the instruments played. Originally solely a cellist, Wastell has diversified his portfolio to include electronics, tam tam, bowed metals and ‘amplified textures’, mysterious small sounds created by rubbing and scraping closely miked surfaces and textures.
It is these amplified textures together with a minimal selection of tuned metal objects and simple electronics that make up Wastell’s contribution to The Scotch of St. James, his duo with percussionist Tim Barnes.
New York City based Barnes is also capable of playing in a variety of musical styles, having played in assorted avant rock outfits, but here he strips down everything to a single prepared snare drum, using a contact mic to seize a catalogue of microscopic sounds.
Beautifully recorded by Christoph Amann, Live at AMPLFY 2004 captures thirty five minutes of remarkably restrained yet thoroughly involving musical conversation.
Wastell’s input consists of crackles, gentle abrasions and the occasional hiss of escaping white noise, into which Barnes weaves intimate rattles, scrapes and other miniscule events. There is no sense of rhythm, the music unfolding itself naturally with Barnes focussed more on addressing the structure of his drum, both frame and skin to conjure up small studies of textural abstraction using a variety of wooden and metallic objects.
Every so often Wastell bows or strikes a Nepalese prayer bowl to add a single note of colour to the otherwise monochrome patina of the music, allowing the sound to die away slowly, often just blending into the ongoing structure of the performance but from time to time also providing signposts for the music to move in new directions.
Silence plays an important part. Little groups of sonic conversation are spread apart by brief patches of considered quietude, allowing the listener a few moments of repose to digest the music before becoming enveloped again. The quality of the recording really shows through here, every last crackle of static and stroke of the drum skin are crystal clear.
This is beautiful music that inhabits its own very individual sound world. It has an air of austerity and precision yet also in places the interplay between the two musicians carries back and forth in little bursts of scurrying activity. In other areas the conversation is less pronounced, the two musicians focussed on individual sonic discoveries merging together seamlessly in concert with one another.
Music of this type manages to release itself from the intrinsic emotional and historic baggage that comes with other music based around more traditional instrumentation. After the initial attempts to pin down the origins of every sound fail, the beguiling beauty of the music draws you in on its own terms. It is testament to the remarkable skill of the musicians that the sound takes on a life of its own, and it is only at the conclusion of the disc as the audience breaks into applause that you are reminded of the human element involved in its making.
Live at AMPLIFY 2004 is a real gem of a recording capturing two musicians at the height of their abilities and is thoroughly recommended.
The Scotch of St James will open the Erstquake 2 festival in New York this September.
~Richard Pinnell
Nice read, Richard, thanks! You make the music sound very appealing to me and I'm going to keep my eye out for this one. I gather this disc would be far sparser than the Magali Babin disc I praised in similar terms a few weeks ago here. This kind of amplification of a microscopic acoustic soundworld is one of the approaches to contemporary music I rather enjoy. It also strikes me as a prototypically electroacoustic music instead of the electronic music that is sometimes misleadingly referred to as "electroacoustic".
I've recommend this disc to friends who have had at least a passing interest in electroacoustic music but were not very familiar with musicians or works. A great example of (somewhat) intederminate music stripped of more obvious signifiers and referents. Compelling and worthy of repeated listenings.
Posted by: vadim at August 31, 2005 10:34 AMWow! I need to hear this as well--what a great review, and very nicely articulated about what makes newer improv different from what has come before--wish I'd done that!
Posted by: marc at September 5, 2005 3:12 AMThanks for the encouraging comments Marc, Mike. Much appreciated.
Posted by: Richard Pinnell at September 5, 2005 10:42 AMHey Richard.
I have to admit that I really did NOT like Wastell's contribution on Open (erstwhile).
His crumpling of paper or whatever that was, got on my nerves and reminded me of what someone would do to make this music, if they had no experience with it.
However I am open to hearing other recordings. I hope he lays off the "amplified textures" however.
Posted by: jared/sonic1 at September 30, 2005 4:56 PMI (obviously) like open a lot, but Mark showed this weekend that he's really found his voice with his new instrument/s, he was great all weekend.
Posted by: jon abbey at September 30, 2005 5:15 PMJon, did he work with amplified textures at Erstquake?
Posted by: Tanner at September 30, 2005 6:11 PMhe played a big gong and other metallic percussion on the first night and "amplified textures" in his other two sets, I believe. I also like his newest release in the Vibra series, Vibra #2 on Longbox, I'm a big fan of the series.
Posted by: jon abbey at September 30, 2005 7:31 PMWell, certainly that sounds more attractive than what I heard on Open.
Who knows though. Maybe next week I will absolutely adore Open.
Posted by: jared/sonic1 at September 30, 2005 9:19 PMVibra 2 is terrific. Longbox is certainly a label you chaps should be checking out - Adam Sonderberg's on a roll, what with Dropp Ensemble, Civil War, Jon Mueller's new duo with Jim Schoenecker, "The Interview" (sure all you Erstquakers would love that) and this.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at October 1, 2005 2:07 AMFunny you should say that Dan, Mark sold me a copy of the Dropp Ensemble disc a couple of days ago at Sound323, and on first listening it is really gorgeous stuff. I also have The Interview which will get listened to very soon. Not familiar with Civil War though.
Having had the chance to see Wastell live many times in the last year or so Jared, I can confirm that the ErstQuake performances were the most rewarding yet. I am not a great fan of Open either, but things have moved on since then. For better examples of the amplified textures set up try Faktura on Absurd or the above mentioned Scotch disc.
Posted by: Richard Pinnell at October 1, 2005 2:35 AMFunny, OPEN is one my favourite Ersts. It's not all that typical - quite opulent and full-textured, but sooo musical.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at October 1, 2005 5:43 AMI reserve the right to be inconsistent and change my mind about Open, as I often do about these sorts of albums. But I just happened to be listening to it a few days before I read this thread and was like, who is making that fucking annoying crumpling paper sound. It was maybe not exactly crumpling paper, but that is about what it sounded like. And I thought it was cheap when I heard it.
Might I also reserve the right to be wrong. It could have been one of the other contributors, but I think it was Wastell since he IS the amplified textures guy listed.
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