Tilt - Tilt

l’innomable

Tilt is Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec (live electronics) and Tomaz Grom (double bass) and this self-titled disc documents two performances from Alicante and Ljubljana in 2004. Their approach is fairly rough and tumble, at its best a brutal welter of noise whipsawing back and forth, leaving bruises. Grom often sounds like some bastard offspring of Barry Guy and Simon Fell, but more extreme than either, abusing his instrument within an inch of its life in a generally absorbing manner, weaving through the minefield established by Sambolec’s circuitry. They do settle down once in a while. The second part of the Alicante set evolves into a small thicket of static pops and whistling tones but not for very long. The pops mutate in harsh clawings, the whistling into taut thwanged strings. That set peters out somewhat desultorily, however, unspooling like a cassette thrown out a car window.

I prefer the Ljubljana performance as a whole. It just coheres better (assuming coherence is a concern here, something about which I’m not so sure). It opens with wacky whirs next to a bass that sounds like it’s being strummed as its player falls down a flight of stairs and goes outward from there. There’s the requisite subsidence, but this time it evolves into a near-tonal passage where the bass, I swear, summons up the specter of Eberhard Weber. This isn’t a bad thing, in context, and the music acquires a lurching sort of gait, caroming out of the room.

It’s not a bad disc, all told. Fans of anything from the late, lamented Voice Crack to the Bohman Brothers will likely enjoy it.

l’innomable