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ISKRA3
Album: 08 May 2005
By: RobertJarvis


http://emanemdisc.com/

ISKRA3 (psi 05.02) is scheduled for release at the beginning of May, 2005 on Evan Parker's Psi label. Described as "revolutionary improvised music for trombone and live computer processing," the album features Robert Jarvis (Kyma) improvising with Paul Rutherford (trombone). Himself a trombonist, Jarvis performs regularly with Rutherford as part of the London Improvisers Orchestra, but on this particular CD, Jarvis performs only on Kyma, using it as a musical instrument. The entire album is strictly improvised—no discussion about the music before or during the recording. You can order it online at EMANEM: "compact discs of unadulterated new music for people who like new music unadulterated".

Discussion (Descriptions, reviews, discussion):

Virtuosi converse in London

Imagine what it would sound like if a virtuoso trombonist decided to improvise with two live-electronic processing virtuosi; that gives you some idea of the unique sound on iskra-3. When Paul Rutherford's trombone meets Robert Jarvis' live Kyma processing, the result is a true conversation with continuously evolving textured layers of meaning: highly aware and interactive. The result is intense and densely-packed (the musicians warn that "the music on this CD is rich and concentrated; it is not necessarily intended that it all be heard in one listening"). In BRELFOR (track 5), the sound of a single human breath morphs into a complex drone-like background noise (a distant dream of the metro). All signal processing gestures on this track have a kind of upward sweep to them, the cumulative effect evoking Risset's endless glissandi. Pitch, filter cutoffs and loudness all build the upwards motion. Staccato blats are captured and granulated, dissolving into electronic filter sweeps like water droplets in a bowl. Longer melodic passages emerge, electronically doubled. The metro transforms itself into the sound of marching which the trombone answers with a hint at reveille. Then, back to a sparser texture with killer whale-like cries from the trombone and literal echoes from the DSP and ending with a very long reverberation.