
Live in Texas (Balance Point Acoustics, 2016) BPALTD 808
Musicians: Sandy Ewen / Damon Smith / Weasel Walter
Reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni, Free Jazz Blog
Live in Texas (Balance Point Acoustics, 2016) BPALTD 808 — Reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni, Free Jazz Blog
Musicians: Sandy Ewen / Damon Smith / Weasel Walter
Reviewed by Eyal Hareuveni, Free Jazz Blog
Live in Texas - BPA LTD 808 — Reviewed by Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
Musicians: SANDY EWEN / DAMON SMITH / WEASEL WALTER
Reviewed by Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
SANDY EWEN / DAMON SMITH / WEASEL WALTER - Live in Texas (BPA LTD 808; USA) Featuring Sandy Ewen on guitar & objects, Damon Smith on double bass & 7-string electric upright bass and Weasel Walter on percussion. This is the second disc from this trio which features Houston-based guitarist Sandy Ewen along with bassist Damon Smith (recently moved from Houston to Boston) and NY drum wizard Weasel Walter. Since the first disc was released Ms. Ewen has gone on to record a duo with Henry Kaiser and a quartet with Damon Smith, Jaap Blonk & Chris Cogburn. It was actually Mr. Kaiser who first sung the praises for Ms. Ewen’s guitar playing, making sure that other guitar fanatics took notice. Both Damon Smith and Weasel Walter are well-seasoned improvisers who have worked with a diverse array of musicians from across the spectrum: Damon has worked with Peter Kowald, Fred Van Hove & Frank Gratkowski while Weasel Walter gets around with Lydia Lunch to Mary Halvorson to Marc Edwards. Hence, these two gifted players give Ms. Ewen a chance to stretch out and go wherever she wants. Ms. Ewen, who is still pretty young, sounds like Derek Bailey at times, uncompromising, focused and determined to navigate the never-ending stream of rapidly changing ideas that Smith and Walter provide. There is a certain magic that strong, spirited improv provides when it works and there is quite a bit of that magic/glue going on here. My favorite part is when the spirits or ghosts start to peek their heads through the other side… so say hello to the friends spirits as they usher us into another land. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
Nearly Extinct — Reviewed by Bill Meyer, The Wire (May 2016 (Issue 387))
Musicians: Henry Kaiser/Steve Parker/Damon Smith/Chris Cogburn
Reviewed by Bill Meyer, The Wire (May 2016 (Issue 387))
Three of the musicians on this record are based in the state of Texas, which hosts a viable improvising music scene despite its reputation for being a ferociously revved up engine for American cultural know-nothing-ism. The fourth, guitarist Henry Kaiser, is a visitor from San Francisco, where a decade ago he and bassist Damon Smith forged a connection. So at one level, this is
a good old-fashioned improv session that exemplifies several practices known to the genre's fans: it rekindles an old partnership, brings a ringer out to the relative sticks, showcases the talents of the locals, and documents the encounter generously (the CD runs to 77 minutes). It could easily have been called Mr Kaiser Goes To Austin TX. But the musicians have other geographical and musical destinations in mind. As the title Nearly Extinct implies and the map of past improvisational styles and ensembles (AACM, aleatory, EAI/onkyokei, etc) on the cover confirms, they are quite aware that they are navigating known territory_ They aren't freely improvising to find something new; they're doing so because that's the way to accomplish certain ends. The act of collectively deciding what they're doing from moment to moment generates quite a charge. The quartet's collective CV includes free jazz, rustic and ethereal soundtracks, new music and Malagasy folk. With all this experience to draw on, making good decisions about what to bring in and what to leave out is essential. Kaiser in particular has spent a lifetime learning to play everything he ever liked and making sure that someone knows it, but his judgment pedal is fully powered and engaged throughout the CD. When he throws in some savage funk or psychedelic freakout licks, someone else is ready to make sense of them without betraying the music's commitment to instant creation. Trombonist Steve Parker pitches right into the fray, contributing voluptuous smears and rude exhalations that contrast most satisfyingly with the slash and spikiness of the strings. Drummer Chris Cogburn is the voice of restraint, using tiny rubs and quick whirling circuits to add calorie-free energy and texture. Historical precedent is both a guide and a goad on Nearly Extinct, challenging the players to be as good as their inspirations, and it works.
Bill Meyer
The Wire (May 2016 (Issue 387))
The Happymakers — Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Msic Review
Musicians: Wolfgang Fuchs, Jacob Lindsay, Damon Smith, Serge Baghdassarians, Boris Baltschun
Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Msic Review
Who are the Happymakers? Will they make you happy? What music is this? The answer is yes. At least to the second question, provided you make yourself disposed towards the sounds that come at you in joyful torrents of improvised care. This is a five-person quintet of players who develop a special chemistry in the process of creating eleven segments of freely improvised avant music, all on the self-titled CD (Balance Point Acoustics BPA 008). Free jazz? You can call it that. It has some jazz rootedness, but then some rootedness in new music as well.
So who are these Happymakers? As of May 2003 they all were in Oakland California at least part of the time to record this album. After and before that they are from a diverse set of places, the US, Europe....and of course wherever they happen to be.
To be more specific, the Happymakers are Wolfgang Fuchs on sopranino saxophone and bass clarinet, Jacob Lindsay on Ab, Bb and bass clarinet, Damon Smith on double bass, Serge Baghdassarians on guitar and electronics, and Boris Baltschun on electronics.
This is about the notes, but especially about how the notes are shaded with timbre-colors, how they lay out in pointillistic counterpoint, how each instrumental contribution fits in with an expressive whole. Everyone works together impressively well, listens closely and responds with creative musical strokes of their "brush" to creative a collective tone painting, or rather a series of them.
In truth this is a group with an unusual cohesiveness, a multi-being organism, a flair for creating an ever-evolving blend of differences-in-sameness. We can thank Damon Smith for getting this recording together, as Balance Point Acoustics is his baby and we tip our cap to him for the copiously absorbing fare that has come out on the label.
As for the various ins and outs of the artists and their backgrounds, I refer you to the lucid liners written by Lisle Ellis and Damon Smith. I find this one an essential for its skilled and exciting synthesis of Euro-American improv channels. Not a note is extra here. And yes, it WILL make you happy if you let it.
Burns Longer — Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards , Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog
Musicians: Fred Van Hove, Peter Jacquemyn, Damon Smith
Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards , Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog
Place Meant for Birds — Reviewed by Gary Brown, Classic Rock Radio
Musicians: Biggi Vinkeloe / Mark Weaver / Damon Smith
Reviewed by Gary Brown, Classic Rock Radio
Desert Sweets @ the Outpost, Albuquerque, NM 03/14/13 Photo by: Mark Weber |
A Place Meant for Birds — Reviewed by Derek Taylor, Dusted Magazine
Musicians: Desert Sweets (Biggi Vinkeloe/Mark Weaver/Damon Smith)
Reviewed by Derek Taylor, Dusted Magazine
Houston-based bassist Damon Smith keeps a professional critic’s pace when it comes to the consumption of new improvised music by his peers and heroes. Rarely a day goes by on his Facebook feed without the posting of new acquisitions, often coupled with the kind of extreme cuisine choices that would make even the most seasoned cable TV shock gourmand balk at the prospect of ingestion (Pig snouts and rooster testicles represent recent selections). Along with these impressive appetites, Smith is fiercely protective of the musical heritage of which he is a part. Fail to do your homework or pontificate without proper context and you’re likely to justifiably earn his ire. Smith’s strong stances may be off-putting in their occasional stridency, but they are products of a genuine love of the music.
A Place Meant for Birds, released on Smith’s label Balance Point Acoustics, reveals another side of the bassist’s personality, his sense of humor. A cover painting by Delmas Howe depicts a cherubic vaquero that bears more than passing resemblance to Smith. Operating under the collective sobriquet of Desert Sweets, Swedish altoist Biggi Vinkeloe (also on flute) and tubaist Mark Weaver (doubling on digeridoo) joined him at Albuquerque’s Outpost performance space in March of 2013 for a gig that dates almost a dozen years from an earlier recording together. The trio’s instrumentation lends itself to the realization of broad dynamics with Vinkeloe frequently inhabiting the upper regions with a lilting, aqueous reed tone while Smith and Weaver plumb the lower depths through textured drones and multiphonics. “Vision is a Long Tumble” traces just such an itinerary, the interplay unfolding in measured bursts across seven minutes and change.
“White Bed” erupts in cascades, Smith going for maximum snap from his strings as his partners loose overlapping percolating streams. Here and elsewhere the intimate recording really enhances the detail, so much so that the clicks of Vinkeloe’s key pads are easily audible alongside her feathery phrasings. “Not Salt” teams Weaver’s digeridoo with Smith’s tree-felling bass, the deep glottal sounds of the former vibrating in harmonic confluence with the swelling rub board resonances of the latter. Vinkeloe’s warm alto lines suss out the sweet spot in-between. Even when Smith’s bowing turns abrasive and frantic the overarching ensemble sound stays oddly meditative and melodic. Acrobatic, knife-edged flute, booming pizzicato bass and subterranean tuba dance together on the sectional fifteen-minute “Silt”, turning from hand-in-glove harmonics to a finale steeped in rapid-fire expulsions and explosions.
Vinkeloe’s role as mellifluous counterweight to the comparatively somber musings of Smith and Weaver extends into “Embedded in Rock” as the latter two instruments frame dark shapes and coarse textures against which the former’s alto brushes and glides, turning from sweet to sour and back again while sustaining an engaging tonal contrast. Poet Lisa Gill takes the stage with the trio for a recitation of her “The Wind Has Taken My Breath”, her abstract verbal imagery signaling abstruse bursts from the instruments. “To Spill a Few Birds” summarizes much of what has transpired prior with another collective leap into an extemporized breach and Vinkeloe blowing forceful figures on flute that carry vaguely Native American sonorities. As a means of tying the performance to its desert venue birthplace it does the job with beautiful brevity.
Derek Taylo
Nearly Extinct — Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog
Musicians: Henry Kaiser, Damon Smith, Chris Cogburn, Steve Parker
Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog
Desert Sweets, A Place Not Meant for Birds — Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Music Review
Musicians: Biggi Vinkeloe, Mark Weaver, Damon Smith
Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Music Review
The approach is rollicking free-avant improv, with each member filling a key role. The recording is well staged with a perfect balance between the trio. Most importantly, it is a platform on which the three can excel at creating considerable spontaneous interest.
Biggi has a way about her. She is on the outside edge of the music yet there is also a lyrical side that shows here, nicely contrasting with Damon's advanced sound color bass adventures and Mark's tuba textures and good note choices.
There are seven segments that hold our interest. One includes a poem recitation by Lisa Gill that broadens the scope nicely.
It may be a bit of a sleeper of an album. Those who do not know the artists well may not find this album in their hands unless someone calls it out to them. I am doing that today because it is music that keeps sounding better to me the more I listen to it. The beauty of Ms. Vinkeloe's approach, the excellent improvisational bass lines and the nice color additions of Weaver's tuba show us an collective artistry that dwells in a rarified space where the lines work together yet each instrumentalist adds much of her-his own personal way.
Excellent.
Jus — Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog
Musicians: Jacob Lindsay, Ava Mendoza, Damon Smith, Weasel Walter
Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog
Now what makes this one interesting is the consistently out, pointillated, pin-point surgical entrance of sound structures in space. The sound colors are extraordinarily fertile and evocative. This is improv with a new music kind of slant, operating within the "tradition" of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, say, or MEV, in other words abstracted and cumulative, four-way just about all the time, continuous and creatively inventive.
It's not a music where you say to yourself, "Wow, Listen to that bass clarinet!" so much as you experience sonic wholes made up of the ingenious contributions of all four in out counterpoint.
Everyone is key most all the time, so it is not a music where you single out foreground from background. It is simply music that occupies pan-ground if you please.
There is most interesting bass and guitar work as a part of the whole, so I place the write up on this blog, but the reed and percussion contributions are no less interesting or important.
An hour of this, thanks to the insightful sound sculpting consistently present, does not seem at all taxing, assuming you already understand the outside lanes of getting to music. It fascinates, enthralls and refuses to abandon the rarefied realms it occupies, but instead generates ever new combinations of timbre and texture.
So the music succeeds in so doing. This is not something "easy to do" well. Do not fool yourself. Sit down with three others and try to get to this level. You doubtless will find it is not easy to be both self-ful and selfless with three others. Jus, then, is an achievement, a critical outing on the outer fringes that does what it does with a certain brilliance. It's a good example of a great result in this sphere. Put your ears on deep-listening mode and you will get much from this.
North of Blanco — Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog
Musicians: Jaap Blonk, Sandy Ewen, Damon Smith, Chris Cogburn
Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog
In this foursome are Jaap Blonk on vocals and electronics, Sandy Ewen on guitar and objects, Chris Cogburn on percussion and Damon on prepared double bass.
The emphasis with this outing is to realize advanced sonic sculpting, to create textures and ambiant universes that rely on the creative instincts of all four participants to create extra-musical sounds from, if you will pardon the overused phrase, "outside the box."
That means that Jaap Blonk lets loose with considered vocalizations from within the realms of human capabilities, not just "singing" as such but phonemic percussives, unpitched and pitched utterances and otherwise choosing from the full gamut of soundings available to him as human exponent.
Damon's prepared bass, whether bowed, plucked, scraped or sounded in whatever way necessary, creates an extended universe of textures and timbres that complement Jaap and his effusions.
The same can be said of the distinctive soundings of guitarist Sandy Ewen (who we covered recently with a duet album with Henry Kaiser) and percussionist Chris Cogburn.
The result is an iconoclastic mix of noise-pitch freedom that all who like the outer realms will no doubt readily respond to as I have. Beautiful sounds of deep listening and measured utterance!
Hugo Ball: Sechs Laut--und Klanggedichte, 1916 — Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards
Musicians: Jaap Blonk & Damon Smith
Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards
It is uncompromising sound event-music that both pays homage to the iconoclastic Ball and shows us how his inspirational methods still remain prophetic to the avant movement we still recognize as central to modernism today.
Blonk enacts the texts with very inventive vocalizations that utilize all the dramatic and sonic resources of his vocal apparatus. Damon Smith makes of his contrabass an extension of his creative sound-producing imagination, using conventional and extended techniques in an avant bass kind of tour de force.
What that means is that you get a full CDs worth of adventure. This may put off those not used to the avant stylistic universe, though an open mind will get you at least half the way to where you need to be to appreciate such sounds. Those used to progressive avantness might need a few listens to get acclimated, but in the end the bass-vocal interactions will fascinate and give you much to experience.
Recommended listening for the intrepid. And some fabulously inventive bass and vocal performances!
Zero Plus + The Happymakers — Reviewed by Jason Bivins
Musicians: Aurora Josephson/Philipp Wachsmann/Jacob Lindsay/Damon Smith/Martin Blume + Wolfgang Fuchs/Jacob Lindsay/Damon Smith/Serge Baghdassarians/Boris Baltschun
Reviewed by Jason Bivins
Damon Smith / Jacob Lindsay / et al
Zero Plus + The Happymakers
(Balance Point Acoustics)
Anyone who's read my reviews knows that I am regularly given to complaining about the woeful lack of coverage of the Bay Area improvising scenes. Though this wonderful area is blessed with dozens of musical talents, ample opportunities for performance, and several labels documenting the creativity (including Rastascan and Limited Sedition, along with Balance Point Acoustics), listeners haven't gotten sufficiently hip to what's going on out there. Damon Smith's Balance Point Acoustics imprint seems to specialize in summit meetings between often globetrotting improvisers, who form partnerships both lasting and ever-morphing in various global cities.
For the first of these releases, we find violinist/electronician Philipp Wachsmann and percussionist Martin Blume—who have played together for a long time in the collective Lines—meeting up with vocalist Aurora Josephson, clarinetist Jacob Lindsay, and bassist Smith. Improvised vocals tend to polarize listeners. Some dig the playful deconstructions of, say, David Moss or Maggie Nicols, while others favor the wordless instrumentalisms of singers as diverse as Phil Minton or Ami Yoshida. And some would prefer none at all, save the occasional commentary by Joelle Leandre.
Me, I go back and forth, but I'm not entirely certain that Aurora Josephson's dramatic vocalisms work with the very miniature improv that seems the inspiration on Zero Plus. She has a big wide instrument and—like Vanessa Mackness—occasionally indulges in full-throated operatic booming. While this does inspire Wachsmann to come out with some of his most effusive playing in recent memory, it occasionally makes for an awkward contrast with the more reserved, muted gestures from Lindsay, Smith, and Blume. Regardless of that relatively minor quibble, though, this is rich, thoughtful improvised music in the tradition of London minimalism.
The second release features Lindsay and Smith as well, this time joining reeds player Wolfgang Fuchs, guitarist/electronician Serge Baghdassarians, and electronician Boris Baltschun for an hour of eleven improvisations. Somewhat surprising to me, this release was the more conventional of the two. I'd expected something much less expressionist than the music here actually is, most likely because of the presence of Baghdassarians (who contributed a fine track to Absinth Records' Berlin Strings compilation) and Baltschun.
The majority of this quintet's personality, however, comes from the interplay between the chirping, squawking clarinets and Smith's slippery bass playing. A bit too much time seems to be spent in instrumental imitation: The reeds seek to vibrate in a way that emulates electronics, and the electronics work in areas of consonance and relative pitch for the most part, rather than setting up significant contrasts. This is done very well, and is exactly the sort of thing that many listeners relish in these instrumental combinations, so it's not like this is a negative comment. This strategy works best when the focus isn't always on pitch or tone, but rather on attack and decay: The multiple voices work against the conventions of breath and line to create moments of compelling suspension.
Fuchs' unique voice on his clarinets meshes well with the energetic, probing Lindsay and the splendidly resourceful bassist Smith. Funny, but in some ways Baltschun and Baghdassarians seem too tangential. Maybe that's my problem, more than anything else. Of course they're full participants—buzzes, washes, and drones are everywhere here—but they simply seem a bit more reactive than I'd hoped for. Yet despite this kind of general reservation, one of the major successes of this disc is the amount of space the players leave each other and the relative rapidity of the responses they make. So while the blending of approaches might not necessarily work for me, there's no denying the skill of the players, both as individuals and as a group. At any rate, I go back and forth about this recording—maybe that's a positive, a sign of challenges and questions raised, about expectations unsettled.
Ausfegen BPA 012 — Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog
Musicians: Paul Hartsaw, Kristian Aspelin, Damon Smith, Jerome Bryerton
Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog
In many ways the music here represents a sort of "clearing" as well. It is a quartet of musicians dedicated to improvisations of the avant variety, as much influenced by "new music classical" as it is by "free jazz."
In the mix are musicians both familiar and unfamiliar to me. Paul Hartsaw is on tenor and soprano saxes--and I have reviewed a good number of his recordings here (type his name in the search box). Damon Smith plays contrabasses (two simultaneously for "Broom with Red Bristles"). He is now well-known to me thanks to his sending a batch of his recordings recently, of which this album is a part. Kristian Aspelin is on guitar (and broom activated guitar on the cut mentioned). Jerome Bryerton is on percussion.
We have eight collective improvisations in the set. All are uncompromising in their dedication to the abstract realms of expression, splattered and scattered timbral events that follow in the path of such pioneering ensembles as the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, MEV, AMM, etc. That means a striving for a four-part group sound composed via the counterpoint-pointillism of a four-in-one totality. No one is soloing. Everyone is soloing. The distinction loses meaning in the four-part melange.
Each player brings a special instrumental approach to bear on the whole. And each is finely attuned to the others so that a totality emerges over time for each segment.
This is an excellent example of the new music side of contemporary avant improv. It remains always at the farther edge of tone and in the center of timbre. So of course a listener not used to such playing must adjust to the sound events and suppress expectations of conventional melody, pulse and form that one would ordinarily hear in less avant contexts.
In the end the question becomes, "does this ensemble express new sonances with an expressive cohesiveness, a sense of goal-orientation and sheer viscerality?" That's one question this sort of music raises, anyway. The answer is yes, most definitely. And so I do recommend this one for you for its thoroughgoing exploratory mode and its success at creating the new sounds now available to us, as listeners, as players, as humans in the post-before world. Check this one out.
Mirrors - Broken But No Dust BPA 001 (cassette version) — Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog
Musicians: Peter Kowald & Damon Smith
Reviewed by Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Peter Kowald & Damon Smith, Mirrors - Broken But No Dust
Peter Kowald was one of the greatest avant jazz improv bassists alive before his untimely demise. Damon Smith was and is an important bassist on the scene as well, very deserving of our attention. The two recorded an extended album of duets when Peter made a rather triumphant tour of the US in 2000. It has been out of print for a while but happily is now again available as an audio cassette. Mirrors - Broken But No Dust (BPA 001) brings us the music in all its glory.
What is perhaps most striking about the duets is the incredible rapport established between the two. Whether a hornets nest of busy pizzicato, an ethereal thicket of bowed harmonics or a jungle of slapped string tones, the two form a perfect interlocking of duality-in-singularity.
It is music of great energy, manic expression, exuberant simultaneity. It gives you improvisational segments of sonic unity and virtuoso outness.
For a supremely unified two-bass expression, this recording has few rivals. Grab it while you can. Contrabass aficionados take note. A two-bass hit!
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards at 6:13 AM
Labels: avant free improvisation, duets for two acoustic bass players, free jazz for two bassists, peter kowald and damon smith mirrors broken but no dust reissue gapplegate guitar and bass review
"Mirrors Broken - But no Dust - BPA 001" — Reviewed by David Keenan, The Wire, issue 215
Musicians: Peter Kowald, Damon Smith
Reviewed by David Keenan, The Wire, issue 215
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"Sense of Hearing - BPA 006" — Reviewed by François Couture, All Music
Musicians: Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon/Lonberg-Holm,
Reviewed by François Couture, All Music
For a while, bassist Damon Smith's preferred free improvising unit was the trio, as his previous releases on {Balance Point Acoustics} testify. But despite its triple bill, {Sense of Hearing} consists mostly of duets with singer {Carol Genetti} -- cellist {Fred Lonberg-Holm} joins in only for the last four pieces, representing half an hour of music. The duets have been recorded in the studio; the trio tracks are taken from a live performance at the {Empty Bottle} in Chicago. Genetti plays her voice like an instrument, drawing on the legacy of {Phil Minton} and {Maggie Niccols} to develop her own identity. Several of her idiosyncrasies evoke bird songs (ululating, in particular), but she also uses a lot of croaking and half-enunciated nonsense sentences , along with jazzier-sounding scat lines. Her tone is raspier than {Aurora Josephson}, another Bay Area singer often performing with {Damon Smith} (see their quintet CD {Zero Plus}) and if she's not the most striking improv vocalist in America, she delivers a touching performance. The eight duets presented on this disc range in duration between two and seven minutes. They showcase a musical language that is still growing or undergoing a certain mutation: the vocabulary isn't fixed, there is tension in the delivery, like an incertitude in how to interpret given signifiers. That provides an attention-grabbing level of unrest, especially in {"The Hard and the Soft I"} and {"Experimental Sentences,"} the latter exploring softer, more fragile sounds. The trio pieces, performed the day after the studio session, are more assured, transmuting the previous tension into confident energy. {"Self-Perpetuating Duplicity,"} with its train whistles, stands out as a potent free improv statement.
1.Wuppertal is an Idyll~7:32~~Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon
2.The Hard and the Soft I~3:56~~Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon
3.Urbanch Method~2:22~~Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon
4.Simulate Bearability~2:48~~Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon
5.Fragility Itself~6:12~~Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon
6.Experimental Sentences~4:02~~Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon
7.Ore, Oil, Open~4:36~~Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon
8.Overhearing~4:04~~Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon
9.Deadly Togetherness~6:12~~Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon/Lonberg-Holm, Fred
10.Pouring Out Civilities~7:41~~Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon/Lonberg-Holm, Fred
11.Self-Perpetuating Duplicity~9:32~~Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon/Lonberg-Holm, Fred
12.A Sudden Fit of Abstraction~4:06~~Genetti, Carol/Smith, Damon/Lonberg-Holm, Fred
Genetti, Carol/voice/executive producer
Smith, Damon/voice
Lonberg-Holm, Fred/cello
Falesch, Bob/engineer
Looney, Scott R./mastering
Brightbill, Edgar Alan/artwork
Anzalone, Alan/graphic design/photo
-Avntg
-Free Improvisation
-66:13
Mirrors - Broken, but no Dust — Reviewed by Frank Rubolino, Cadence
Musicians: Peter Kowald, Damon Smith
Reviewed by Frank Rubolino, Cadence
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"The Voice Imitator - BPA 007" — Reviewed by Ken Waxman, Jazz Review
Musicians: Frank Gratkowski, Jerome Bryerton, Damon Smith:
Reviewed by Ken Waxman, Jazz Review
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The Sale of Tickets for Money Was abolished BPA 002 — Reviewed by Jason Bivins, Cadence
Musicians: TONY BEVANS / SCOTT R. LOONEY / DAMON SMITH
Reviewed by Jason Bivins, Cadence
An interesting, unorthodox trio centered around the low-end sounds of Bevan's rumbling bass saxophone and smith tempestuous bass. It's said that improvised music thrives on either long-running groups or on fly-by-night meetings. Well, these these fellows take the latter option to the extreme, recorded during a rare interval in the hectic lives of the these three. Smith works for a local ticket broker and spends many mornings waiting in line for concert or sports tickets; having just finished snatching up a batch for Lou reed, he rushed to the studio for a session before Bevan had to split for his plane. Wild. But, nothing about this music sounds rushed or compressed. Surprisingly, quite the opposite. The three players are each masters of extended technique. Looney plays a prepared piano, garnishing it with tasteful electronics, producing music somewhere close to the zone inhabited by Denman maroney - pitches are bent strings are attacked, mallets used, but there is a real warmth to his playing that distinguishes him from other many prepared pianists. Smith's bass work is highly graceful. Without sacrificing heft and presence, he works in limber figures (often arco) that situate him in the same general stylistic camp as Kowald, Guy and Rodgers.
Bevan, now playing only his bass saxophone, unleashes the most raucous but can follow them with the most delicate gestures. Together, they patiently unfolds music of rich detail, concentration and passion. The smallest sounds speak for themselves and silence is generally incorporated- when they rise up and roar for a bit it actually means something.
"debris of a mask factory" is a great study in texture - it's constant flow of buzzes, rattles, and sounds like those that might come from the ocean floor. Bevan has amazing control over his massive horn, able to create intense caustic sounds even playing triple piano. On many of these pieces such as "Sacred Drawing of lots" and Quapha", the range of sound is just huge. Indeed there are many moments when the listener is bathed in such multiplicity that it's impossible to tell which instrument is responsible for which sound. "An Adverse drawing of lots" is a splendid bass/bass sax duet that starts as a gurgling drone and works it's way into a concise squeal. The following track is a highly abstract duo of Bevan and Looney. �A brief Argument� begins with barely audible scrapping and rumbling. It's very satisfying to listen to players concentrating on a small area of the, exploring all of it's possibilities, music then moving on without aimless meandering.
The enigmatic titles come from a Borges piece. These creations - gestural, incisive, elusive - have something of the great man's ellipticality, something of his penchant for complex but almost impenetrable layers of meaning. A really fine recording that stands out from the pack.