Tanya Kamanovitch / Mat Maneri / Tomo Jacobson / Kresten Osgood

By Ken Waxman

Shaping a five-part improvisation into a consistent program is this semi-string quartet of violists Canadian Tanya Kamanovitch and American Mat Maneri plus Polish bassist Tomo Jacobson and Danish drummer Kresten Osgood. While unconventional in some aspects, the group shares a similar musical language, with drum rumbles never distracting from its harmonic purpose. Instead the integrated variations stretch from languid precision to intense sound mutation. Particularly crucial is Jacobson’s ingenuity, since he can join with Osgood for low-pitched rhythmic attributes or with the others to approximate string ensemble stretches and patterns.

At the same time, Maneri’s and Kamanovitch’s narrative elaborations are usually as fragmented as they are melodic, as on “Variation No. 3”, where string sizzles and stops emphasize bright tensile motifs. Cycling through several semi-climaxes, the quartet is at its freest on “Variation No. 13”, where cymbal clanks and double bass stops provide the continuum upon which sawing metallic glissandi is applied to the strings by the violists. That is until their staccato triple and quadruple stopping signals the mercurial strength of joint communication.

Harsher and more hypnotic on the concluding “Variation No. 10”, the violists’ contrapuntal cross tones break down into col, legno vibrations and barbed slices. Combined with the others’ rebounding shuffles and plucks, the result both completes this program and is a portent of what Part 2’s variations may express.

This multinational group may be an atypical string-oriented quartet, yet the multiple textures offered for sound explorations push aside any ambiguity about its role.

-for MusicWorks Winter Issue 2021/2022