Robin Holcomb & Talking Pictures with Wayne Horvitz
The Point Of It All
Songlines Records
www.songlines.com
By George W. Harris

The title is a fitting question to this quizzical disc. Pianist/vocalist Robin Holcomb teams up with Wayne Horvitz/p-B3, Ron Samworth/g, Bill Clark/tp-fh, Peggy Lee/cello and Dylan van der Schyll/dr for music that teeters and totters between jarring free, pleasant swing and eerie mood music. You’ve got music ranging from the Revolutionary War (“Johnny Was A Soldier”) to the Cumberland region (“In The Hills of Shiloh”) to even Neil Young (“After The Gold Rush”) here, as well as eccentricities like “Interlude” which goes on for just about 3 minutes too long. Holcomb’s voice itself is an acquired taste, sounding at times like one of those ghosts in Disney’s Haunted Mansion. Definitely experimental, with a few dropped Erwin Meyer flasks for effect.