Guillotine

Samo Šalamon/Szilárd Mezei/Jaka Berger
Swirling Blind Unsettled
Kloptec IZK CD 089

Combining contributions from a guitarist, a drummer and a bowed string instrumentalist, each of these CDs follows a particular route to improvisational challenges. Yet the outcomes are as different as Portugal is from Slovenia. Although both guitarist Luis Lopes of Guillotine and Slovenian guitarist Samo Šalamon have been involved with groups playing variations of improvised music, each settled on a particular genre here. Lopes known for his work with saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, among others, sticks to a variant of Jazz-Roc here, aided by Norwegian drummer Andreas Wildhagen and French cellist Valentin Ceccaldi. Meanwhile Šalamon, some of whose other groups work in a territory very close to Fusion, opts for a series of reductionist cameos on Swirling Blind Unsettled. His partners are fellow Slovenian, drummer Jaka Berger plus Serbia violist Szilard Mezei. To add to the understated mood Salamon plays standard six-string and 12-string acoustic guitars.

Setting up Šalamon/Mezei//Berger’s program with plucks from both string players and percussion clanks and clatters on the introductory “Twelve Cats”, the exposition quickly turns to a melding of scratched stropping and repeated runs as the theme is passed from one string set to the next. Moving between overt romanticism and static dryness at first, the subsequent “Wasabi Mood” is more moody than tangy, moving at a walking pace so that Šalamon’s string-bending calculations are as present as the ever-shortening percussion continuum which anchors the piece. Making sure loose ends are bound by recapping the head, the three set up the blueprint for the joint improvisations that follow. They take the form of multipronged exploration with surprise the only constant factor. One track concentrates on the diverse sounds created from slurred fingering on a guitar neck, others introduce touches of showy vaudeville, as Berger expresses himself with soft shoe-like shuffles and tap dance-like pops from cymbals and other parts of his kit, seconded by Mezei’s straight-ahead swing. At its most dissent on “Free Piece” (sic), textures seemingly sliced from string-set interface come up against tin-foil-like scrunching from the percussionist with a repetative drum pattern later cementing the tripartite connection. Finally widening viola bow strokes contrasted with cross flanges from the guitar confirm the opposing currents. Even more trio-defining, “The Seventh Hour” manages to inject a touch of Rock energy into a restrained rumbling exposition initially concerned with guitar arpeggios created by strings that confirm their thickness in vigorous rasgueado

Swirling Blind Unsettled hints of Rock power moves upfront with the Guillotine CD. The first two tracks especially expose times when the rhythmic impetus move past Jazz-Rock into the realm of Rock Power-trio with Lopes as Jimmy Page, Andreas Wildhagen approximating Carmine Appice and despite playing a cello, Ceccaldi exposing his inner Geddy Lee. That means the tracks are rife with riffs that depend on jagged flanges, echoes and crunches from the guitar, chugging paradiddles and extended shuffle beats from the drummer and the cellist sliding out high-pitched buzzes and burps. Swagger adds power to the presentation, but the number of repeated riffs and disproportionate technical embellishments added to what already was developed beyond logical improvising eventually mutes the message(s). Far better are “Guillotine (Epilogue) Diptych 4” and the relatively brief concluding “Orgasmic Dance”. The latter decisively calms the interface with delicate contrapuntal and cross pulsating tone tinctures from the drummer and guitarist as Ceccaldi’s walking bass line holds together disparate parts. As for “Guillotine (Epilogue) Diptych 4”, it’s as slow moving and ruminative as the earlier tracks are frenetic and overwrought. More crucially it demonstrates how with the proper pacing an impressionistic narrative can be constructed out of string scratches and regulated motion with the energy level maintained at a slow burn.

Šalamon/Mezei//Berger’s disc show how advanced improving can connect as a satisfying program without resorting to volume or showiness. Meanwhile what Guillotine creates backing out of its session could have made the program more notable and palatable if the track order was reversed.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Swirling: 1. Twelve Cats 2. Wasabi Mood 3. Rise and Fall 4. The Seventh Hour 5. Mr. Ornette 6, Free Piece

Personnel: Swirling: Szilard Mezei (viola); Samo Salamon (6 and 12-string acoustic guitars) and Jaka Berger (drums)

Track Listing: Guillotine: 1. Guillotine (Prologue) Triptych 2. Marie Antoinette 3. Guillotine (Epilogue) Diptych 4. Orgasmic Dance

Personnel: Guillotine: Luis Lopes (guitar); Valentin Ceccaldi (cello) and Andreas Wildhagen (drums)