Axel Dörner/Lucio Capece - s/t

l’Innomable

Admittedly, I find it somehow refreshing on its own merits to hear a good, new recording that’s entirely composed on non-electronic sounds. Nothing at all, of course, against current-driven noises but it’s always a good thing, even if only as a listener, to be able to step out of a given stream and stand momentarily on the shore, taking in the surroundings from a slightly different vantage. A relatively minor concern anyway; it’s the musicians themselves who make the difference whether plying their art with computers or sticks ‘n’ stones. Here, Dörner eschews his laptop, sticking to trumpet while Capece, too, abandons any electronica, summoning air through soprano saxophone and bass clarinet.

Two long, untitled improvisations. The first spends most of its first half in breath-tone territory before shifting into long, held notes of varying purity or granularity. But it’s less about the nature of the sounds themselves than their paired spacing, the gentle dovetailing and spatial undulations that occur. The pacing is calm, considered. Care seems to be taken to contrast the sounds effectively, allowing space for each while still, more often than not, weaving a strand that can be heard as a whole. The remaining track is only marginally different, the tones again tending toward the drawn out, the textures tumbling from sputtering air columns to burbles to dark hums. Near the beginning, Capece engages in some playing that sounds rather electronic, in fact. But again, it’s all about the spatial dance of the two lines, the silences between and the relationships found among the tones. The disc is very “unspectacular” to that extent, almost demure, but all the richer for that.

A very good recording.

l’Innomable