Memorize the Sky

482 Music 53

Electro-acoustic improv, or EAI, has already cycled through a myriad of moniker changes in its relatively short lifespan as an idiom. To jazz-biased laypersons like myself, the presence of laptops, turntables, mixing boards and the like leads to an often-incorrect assumption that electronics are the prevalent component in such music-making endeavors. Deviating sharply from that stereotype, the curiously named collective Memorize the Sky weights its explorations soundly on the acoustic side of the abbreviation. Comprised of Matt Bauder on a modest variety of reeds, Zach Wallace on bass, vibes and percussion and Aaron Siegel on a fractional kit of snare and bass drums and vibes, all three also double on percussion. The sleeve notes denote no amplified or electronic instruments, yet the compositions and improvisations undeniably exude elements of electronic patterns and essence. Texture-based pieces like the opening “Raft of Stone” and harmonics-saturated “Lake of Light” mix with more lyrical tone poems like bass, bass clarinet and vibraphone reverie “Etch of Wood” and the slowly oscillating “Field of Ice”. “Cloud of Clay” sounds strangely like a Native American ritual dance, Wallace’s bass supplying a reverberating ostinato around which Bauder’s hollow gurgling clarinet swirls as Siegel punctuates with metallic clatter. “Path of Spider” serves as an ascendant finale, tying together facets touched upon in the other tracks over a rippling drone-surfaced expanse. Outwardly, the three musicians remind me a little of some of Tortoises more ambient experiments sans the gravitational pull towards groove. Whatever their particular sources of influence, the outcome is something to marvel at quietly and return to repeatedly.

~ Derek Taylor