KEITH ROWE / BURKHARD BEINS
Grain
Zarek
06


Asking who the most influential living improvising guitarist in certain North American or overseas circles, won't produce expected names like Jim Hall, Pat Metheny or Kenny Burrell. Instead, tabletop guitarist Keith Rowe, a longtime AMM stalwart, and creator of a variety of prepared and ambient sounds is likely to be cited.

Rowe's influence is so all-encompassing that one could speculate that a few of his more strident followers would deny that there's a future for the upright guitar. What is true, however, is that for the past 30 years he, along with Derek Bailey, has been the guru of non-idiomatic guitar sounds in a group setting.

That's why its so fascinating to hear him, as on this CD, outside of the AMM alliance, playing with a younger musician whose comprehensive conception of sound has been shaped by that band's innovations. Not that German percussionist Burkhard Beins is in any way subservient here. He has already begun to make a reputation in combinations with British guitarist John Bisset and as part of Perlonex with guitarist Jörg Maria Zeger and Ignaz Schick on electronics.

Working together as a duo for the first time here, you notice almost immediately that except for some bald passages, the sounds produced are louder and more distinct then on some of Beins other projects. Of course turning up the loudness dial on your stereo for performances like this never hurts.

Centrepiece of the disc is the almost 28 minute "Grain 3 (Live)," which was recorded a few months before the two studio sessions that precede it. At first Beins seems content with producing what appear to be small garbage can lid rattles and what sounds like the resonating of a door stopper, as Rowe gets his plastic fan and other manipulating toys at the ready.

Yet when the guitarist builds up some pure electronic pulses and characteristic squeaks and what appear to be minute tops spinning, Beins begins hitting his cymbals with what sounds like a tiny swizzle stick. Gradually he turns to the rest of the kit to face off against a constant drone that comes from both Rowe's guitar and ghostly radio noises that are just inaudible enough to mask the meaning of the words.

As what might be aluminum foil is twisted in the foreground, continuous electronic impulses vie with crackling static and snatches of radio music for the foreground as pulses shimmer in the background. Eventually Rowe seems to be twisting his instrument's dials and button for maximum sound as the roar conjures up picture of the ceaseless moving machinery in Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times.

Resolution surfaces with the percussionist scraping a reverberating metal plane and the guitarist playing ascending and descending string patterns that could be vaguely Oriental. Finally his guitar is switched off and the rest, as they say, is silence.

Frankly, an over-dependence on silence is why the studio pieces -- which ooze one in another -- don't work as well. A steady pulse from the guitar is the glue that holds the improvisations together and creates a sort of beauty in stasis. Sounds like the click of a metronome, a freight train passing a level crossing and metallic clicks and crunches work because they stand out from the buzz of the electric motor like a bas-relief. But when the sound disappear along with the equilibrium, as at the end of "Grain 2," shape and symmetry do so as well.

A fascinating glimpse of Rowe's talents outside AMM and a lesson in how other improvisers relate to him, GRAIN can be enjoyed not just by the converted, but by those searching for an entrée into these sorts of sounds.


--Ken Waxman


Track Listing: 1. Grain 1 2. Grain 2 3. Grain 3 (Live)


Personnel: Keith Rowe (tabletop guitars); Burkhard Beins (percussion)