Hughes/Mimmo/Schlechta/Volquartz

A six-part suite that defines the interlocking textures of a twilight interlude, Cadenza del crepuscolo finds four improvisers creating restrained undulations to express dusk’s changeable shadings. Contributing are Italian soprano saxophonist Gianni Mimmo, US bassist John Hughes and two Germans: bass clarinetist Ove Volquartz and pipe organist Peer Schlechta. Affiliations range from Harri Sjöström to Cecil Taylor to Olaf Rupp in free music, with Volquartz and Schlechta also working as a notated music duo.

Layered and concentrated, the exposition fades in and out as pressurized organ drones chalumeau register clarinet tones and infrequent string stops thicken the result until saxophone trills cut through the mist like warning horn blasts in the open sea. Static and sinuous in parts, respites include Volquartz’s basement level counterpoint to Mimmo’s emphasized bent notes or Hughes resonating string thumps response to the saxophonist’s circular breathing. A midpoint interlude of skywards shooting miasma on “Disvelamento Del Tenebroso Orione” is characterized by the organist widening the sound field with more pressurized air to integrate Mimmo’s squeaky altissimo runs and abrasive tongue slaps into the darkening structure. Constantly augmenting the compression and aided by mid-range strums from the bassist the program reaches a crescendo during “Triste Andromeda” signaled by lyrical reed twitters, first replicated then obliterated with tremolo glissandi from Schlechta. Bell-like tolling from pipe ranks complete the sound portrait after which reed shrills are calmed to treble tones and the piece subsides into musical darkness. Mood rather than movement, the completed program sonically replicates the atmospheric changes it set out to reflect.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Gliding Over Silent Seas 2. Cadenza Del Crepuscolo 3. Disvelamento Del Tenebroso Orione 4. Deep Fissures 5. Triste Andromeda 6. Il Tempo Dell’abbandono

Personnel: Gianni Mimmo (soprano saxophone); Ove Volquartz (bass and contra-bass clarinets); Peer Schlechta (pipe organ) and John Hughes (bass)