Angharad Davies, Tisha Mukarji - Endspace

Another Timbre

Violinist Angharad Davies has been one of the most consistently interesting improvisers performing regularly on the UK scene over the past few years, although CD releases that do her playing real justice are few and far between. Likewise Copenhagen based inside-pianist Tisha Mukarji, whose music has always held me captivated in live situations, is previously represented by only a single CD release, the solo D is for Din on Creative Sources. So this, their first recording as a duo is a very welcome and extremely satisfying arrival.

Endspace is an entirely acoustic affair, and it is impossible to ignore the heritage that goes before such a recording of piano and violin. At least one of the musicians is classically trained, (Davies continues to perform contemporary composition as part of new music ensembles such as Apartment House) and both the slow pace of Feldman and the New York School and the grey austerity of the Wandelweiser collective can be heard echoing through these five improvisations.

Indeed, listening to this delicately constructed album you could even be forgiven for forgetting that it is an album of improvised music. Its simple, fragile forms put together from only the most essential elements have a sense of precision about them more commonly found in modern composition. However whilst restrained in its construction Endspace contains very little silence, gaining its sense of fragility more from the slow pace of the music and its use of decaying sounds than any concept of “reductionism”

Above all this is a beautiful, enchanting album. Both musicians use preparations to their instruments to create a softened, muted feel to the sounds they make. Davies’ violin work ranges from small high pitch bowed whispers somehow pulled from the upper register of the strings to dry, rasping sounds as the entire body of the violin is investigated. She often uses a circular bowing technique to create a rhythmic, sustained pattern. Mukarji’s smaller, more percussive sounds often provide counterpoint to these deadened textures, although it frequently becomes difficult to separate the sounds of the two musicians from each other.

Mukarji works exclusively within the piano, addressing the simply prepared strings and also the body of the instrument with beaters, and what sounds like a bow. She summons up a range of sounds, from the distinctly piano-like chimes that bring the still beauty of the fourth track to a close to the rasping wooden vibrations that appear elsewhere. The two musicians work superbly together, their patience with the music and impeccable timing combine together with the obvious compatibility of each other’s sounds to create music that is deserving of the listener’s careful attention.

Endspace is quite stunningly gorgeous. A thoroughly engrossing meditation on what can still be achieved with these two most traditional of instruments, this is chamber-improv of the highest order.

Another Timbre
Angharad Davies