Adrian Northover / Caroline Kraabel / David Petts / Sue Lynch / John Edwards

Vladimir Chekasin/Alexey Kruglov

Aspect Ratio

Fancy Music Fancy LC 33246

Saxophone aligned but not saxophone absorbed, one British and one Russian session expand the basic reed timbres with computer processing of sounds, music, poetry and voices. Goal realization is achieved as the disparate components jell logically.

Let the City Sleep is the newest disc from London’s The Remote Viewers (RV), an ensemble of fluctuating saxophones plus other instruments. This time it’s a saxophone quartet of Adrian Northover (soprano), Caroline Kraabel (alto) and David Petts and Sue Lynch (tenors) all of whom have extensive experience with The London Improvisers Orchestra and other UK bands. Expanding his usual role as bassist is John Edwards who uses computer programs and electronic synthesis to mulch and mutilates the reed sound sources, add field recording noise and alter and invert tempos and pitches to create novel and unusual synthesis. Moscow-recorded Aspect Ratio on the other hand features only two saxophonists, veteran Vladimir Chekasin, best known for his membership in the Ganelin Trio, on soprano and younger Alexey Kruglov, who has extensive local and international experience, on alto and various reed add-ons and subtractions. While reed interaction is more upfront than the saxophone textures on the RV disc, the space is also shared with electronic mixing and the voices of the two interpreting Chekasi’s graphic scores along with the poetry and palindromes of Kruglov.

Besides the electro-acoustic showcases, each RV members gets a track to him or herself with Petts, RV’s usual chief composer trilling split tone peeps down to low-pitched honks and vibrating scoops, and Northover’s variation of circular breathed buzzing from deep in the body tube most notable. Meanwhile on “File 3” Edwards’ spiccato twangs echo as the innards and wood resonate and creak alongside a rolling string sweep. With granular synthesis and other manipulations encompassing machine-switched on/off buzzes, backwards running tape flanges and undefined brittle scratches, sonic resemblances to marimba tremors, piano kinetics, paced percussion rap share space with reed tone deconstruction and shaking string intimations are also prominent. Sometimes, as on “Sight-Seeing the Ruins (Part 1)” and the title track, pre-recorded voices are heard. There’s a child’s recitation on the first, mated with piano tinkles; and on “Let the City Sleep”, mumbled vocal textures are contrasted with string frails and ring modulator-like gonging, creating the equivalent of a film noir soundtrack. The final “Porch View” exposes and overdubs many of these textural diversions so that the acoustic and electronic timbres are deflected to their logical conclusions. A response to the pandemic, the CD is not only a RV outlier, but fascinating on its own.

So is Aspect Ratio, which luckily was recorded three years earlier when Covid-19 was unknown. Over the course of eight tracks, Chekasin and Kruglov create a uniquely Russian response to a mixture of Jazz, poetry and improvisation. With all the words in Russian any nuances and allusions in the language are lost to the foreign listener, but of most interest is in how two sax players from different generations can work out simpatico accommodation. A sense of fun is one ingredient, since a snatch of “Putting on the Ritz” is one of the first sounds heard on the first track. This leads to vocal harmonies with a reed connection that ends up sounding like an entire saxophone choir. The voice and instrument counterpoint continue to ping pong throughout the disc, with the tracks often staccato and prestissimo. Usually one saxophonist creates a horizontal exposition with the other decorating it by deflecting the extended reed techniques of doits, flattement and extension use of multiphonics into collaborative tones. On some pieces the electronic processing further breaks up the performances into juddering and stretched voltage buzzes or split tone shards that vibrates every which way. Reed suggestions are also used intelligently to counterpoint to the poetry or lyrics. On “Locus V. Pyl Rek Krasen” for instance the sing-song Dadaesque pronouncements are intercut with a Dolpyesque alto saxophone solo. On the other hand Kruglov’s alto shrills and vibrations are used as disrupting factors on the subsequent “Locus VI. Serva Hunc Saporem In Aeternum”, transforming it from verbal mumbling that could be heard during a solemn church service, into a combination of straight-ahead playing and Chekasin’s yodels and slogan shouts. With enough space so that Kruglov has a change to unhook his sax mouthpiece and prepare his zuma, sprinkles of spetrofluctuation, slap tonguing and kazoo-like high-pitches are also heard. “Locus VIII. Ledi, Vy — Pal’to”, the concluding track, wraps all the textures the two have been striving for into a neat package of reed flutter tonguing nursery rhyme-like babbles in various voices and a concluding low-pitched drone. Breaching the language barrier, the Russian duo offers a notable program of universal semi-improvised music.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: City: 1. The Moviegoer 2. File 1 – Lynch 3. The Guest 4. File 2 – Kraabel 5. Falling Beams 6. File 3 7. Sight-Seeing the Ruins (Part 1) 8. Let The City Sleep 9. File 4 – Northover 10. Distant Glimpse 11. File 5 12. Porch View

Personnel: City: Adrian Northover (soprano saxophone); Caroline Kraabel (alto saxophone); David Petts and Sue Lynch (tenor saxophones) and John Edwards (computer, electronics and bass)

Track Listing: Aspect: Actus I: 1. Locus I. Ta-ta-ti-ta-ta-da-da-ta, Seu «Non Venies?» 2. Locus II. A… A-a-a, Seu «Cur Non Respondes? Non Possum Audire» 3. Locus III. Ta-ga-ta-ta-ta-ga, Seu «Hoc Disputemus» 4.Locus IV. Fu-fu-fu-fu, Fu-fu-fu, Seu «Vides Ut Bonum Est» Actus II: 5. Locus V. Pyl Rek Krasen 6. Locus VI. Serva Hunc Saporem In Aeternum 7. Locus VII. Kora Roz & Ne Vor 8. Locus VIII. Ledi, Vy — Pal’to

Personnel: Aspect: Vladimir Chekasin (voice, soprano saxophone and electronics) and Alexey Kruglov (voice, alto saxophone, zurna, prepared alto saxophone and zurna, alto saxophone mouthpiece, objects)