T.ON

Expanding the expertise they bring to improvisations and compositions by group trombonist Matthias Muche, members of the Köln-based T.ON trio take on new challenges with interpretations of programs by four contemporary American composers. Programs is the key word here since Muche, bassist Constantin Herzog and Etienne Nillesen who plays extended snare drum, meld their improvisations with fixed media pre-recorded by Anne La Berge, Madison Greenstone, Sam Pluta and Nate Wooley. Besides this electro-acoustic dialogue the arrangements are further characterized by how the live musicians play off the spatial qualities of the three city churches in which these recordings were made. Hedging their bets a bit, the T.ONers played the same four compositions, but in different order on each disc of this two CD set.

Interestingly it’s the two variants of La Berge’s “Aurora”, composed by the flutist who has the most experience with the notated-improvised music crossover, which gives the three the greatest scope to express their instrumental self-definitions. In both versions while the concentrated rumbles and wedges of processed whooshes are distinct, they don’t take predominance away from the three players. Despite always hanging in the air, the fixed media composition allows for acoustic segments. Muche’s thickened portamento puffs and half-valve responses are prominent as are Herzog’s repeated string thumps and occasionally Nillesen’s lighter clatters. There are still sequences which delineate raging rain storm-like shakes, concentrated drones and tremolo pulses, but equilibrium is maintained throughout.

Otherwise it appears as if the heavy buzzing, screaming drones and rugged grumbles created by the composers’ media dominate the recitals. Spatial qualities of the buildings do create echoes that help project multiple variants of the trio members’ playing. Yet these are often ghostly and distant, with motifs like plunger brass tones, col legno string emphasis and snare drum plops nearly lost in the projected timbres which reach a zenith of jet-plane-like whooshes and oscillated wisps on the second version of Pluta’s “Between Crystal and Smoke”. That track and many of the others have tones that concentrate to near opaque solidity so only occasional acoustic tones are heard.
Overall the eight selections capture a memorable program of melding spatial, acoustic and electronic impulses. But less fixed media projection would have made the set more human as well as harmonized.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: CD1: 1. Between Crystal and Smoke 2. Aurora 3. Cathedral 4. Experiment Two CD2: 1. Aurora 2. Cathedral 3. Experiment Two 4. Between Crystal and Smoke

Personnel: Matthias Muche (trombone); Constantin Herzog (bass); Etienne Nillesen (extended snare drum) and Anne La Berge, Madison Greenstone, Sam Pluta, Nate Wooley (fixed media)