WASCHMANN/JØRGENSEN/RIIS
Expanded Botanics
Ninth World Music
NWM 029 CD
Violin, percussion and laptop may seem like the sort of improv mixture
unique to the 21st Century. But then again so are cross-border, co-op
aggregations like this one, whose name and that of its CD are both Expanded
Botanics. An on-and-off team since 2002, the band consists of one veteran
British-Ugandan improviser -- violinist Philipp Wachsmann -- and two Danes:
Peter Ole Jørgensen on drums, percussion and, most importantly
home-built instruments, and Jakob Riis on laptop.
Abrasive yet low key at the same time, the music the trio makes is definitely
21st Century as well, calling on multi-disciplinary familiarity from all
three. Riis comes from a compositional background, but mixes electronic
music and sound art with performances with the Minijacks laptop quartet
and drummer Stefan Pasborg's improv group Toxicum. Jørgens works
with bassist Peter Friis Nielsen and German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann
in the Wild Mans Band. Classically-trained, Wachsmann, who adds electronics
to his violin here, is an important part of British reedist Evan Parker's
Electronic Project as well as a duo with German drummer Martin Blume.
With such cumulative backgrounds it would seem that there isn't a sound
extant that would surprise any of the participants. You can hear that
on the almost 20-minute "Aboretum syv". Here Wachsmann's jettes
and pizzicato plucks seem to feed back into the mix either from his electronics
or sequenced effects from Riis' laptop. This is after the splayed fiddle
movement has advanced, double-stopping over a base of drum rumbles, cymbal
snaps and staticy flutters from the computer.
As the violinist's wood rending builds up to abrasive scratches and swerves,
the laptopist produces hoof beat sounds, likely with a ring modulator.
Soon, among the scratches and fluttering static you can hear the fiddle
clones applying col legno tremolos and unvarying arpeggios. Then, for
additional metallic squeak, the human violinist applies his bow both sul
ponticello and sul tasto over the fingerboards and near the bridge. At
this point Jørgensen too rouses himself from beneath the gravelly
interference to construct original timbres out of each gong strike that
makes up his bell tree and tam tams. Pushing reverberating loops to the
side, Wachsmann scratches out a double- stopped almost classical theme
for the finale.
Elsewhere, precise marimba-type pressures are upfront. Throughout, homemade
percussion objects emulate the concussion strikes on items as disparate
as chains, maracas, hubcaps and hollow logs. However on tracks like "Aboretum
fire", in between what sounds like pointed sticks grating on drumhead
parchment, Jørgensen is content with standard ruffs, flams and
paradiddles.
Earlier on, Riis has used buzzing oscillations to replicate the sound
of railway level crossing bell, the crumpling of tin foil and the ratcheting
smacks of a pin ball game -- through the last might be the percussionist's
contribution. "Aboretum otte", is Riis's showcase nonetheless,
with sudden barks and resonation pushing aside hissing sine waves and
twittering loops to meet ponticello violin swoops on their own terms.
A static crackle ends the track and the session.
Although little of EXPANDED BOTANICS could be related to anything green
or growing, the cross-fertilization of sounds produces some memorable
music.
-- Ken Waxman
Track Listing: 1. Aboretum et 2. Aboretum to 3. Aboretum tre 4. Aboretum
fire 5. Aboretum fem 6. Aboretum seks 7. Aboretum syv 8. Aboretum otte
Personnel: Philipp Wachsmann (violin and electronics); Peter Ole Jørgensen
(drums, percussion and homebuilt instruments); Jakob Riis (laptop)