Record Reviews

MODULAR STRING TRIO ~ ANTS, BEES AND BUTTERFLIES CLEAN FEED 377 (Barcode: 5609063003772) ~ POLAND ~ Free Jazz / Improvised Music Recorded: 2014 Released: 2016 This is the second album by Polish / Ukrainian Improvised Music ensemble Modular String TrioFind albums by this artist, recorded live at the legendary Warsaw Pardon To Tu club, the home base of the Polish Avant-Garde scene. Contrary to its name the ensemble is not a trio but a quartet, and includes a string trio: violinist Sergiy OkhrimchukFind albums by this artist, cellist Robert JedrzejewskiFind albums by this artist and bassist Jacek MazurkiewiczFind albums by this artist, but also the modular synthesizer / electronics manipulator Lukasz KacperczykFind albums by this artist. Together they perform eight improvised pieces, which are co-credited to the quartet members and are nameless, but cryptically sequentially numbered. The music ranges between completely free and open improvisations and more structured, either rhythmically or melodically, pieces. For listeners unfamiliar with Improvised Music this is probably beyond bearable, but connoisseurs of the genre should find this music quite fascinating. It combines the Jazz and Classical Music elements unlike the music of other such ensembles, due to the specific string trio sound and interplay, and as such is pretty unique. There is a distinct mutual understanding and a high level of musical conversation between the ensemble members, which results in a coherent and plausible musical progression, which the listener is able to follow. Mazurkiewicz is definitely the anchor of the music, supplying the basic pulsations, without which the music would have become way to abstract. As usual the important question is if this music is communicative enough to contribute beyond the closed circle of the musicians involved in making it. The quandary as to the existence of a listener who would like to listen to this music more than once or even repeatedly remains open of course. Personally I enjoyed listening to this music, but I hope these still young musicians will eventually find a middle way between total and unconditional freedom and some form or structure, to make their music closer to the listeners without compromising their artistic vision. Radicalism for the sake of radicalism is usually the problem rather than the solution.

Updated: 12/04/2019Posted: 12/10/2016

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MODULAR STRING TRIO ~ CHLOROFIL AUDIO CAVE 2019/007 (Barcode: 5905669566780) ~ POLAND ~ Avant-Garde Jazz Recorded: 2017 Released: 2019 This is the third album by the Polish / Ukrainian Avant-Garde / Improvised Music quartet called Modular String TrioFind albums by this artist, which combines a string trio: violinist Sergiy OkhrimchukFind albums by this artist, cellist Robert JedrzejewskiFind albums by this artist and bassist Jacek MazurkiewiczFind albums by this artist and the modular synthesizer player Lukasz KacperczykFind albums by this artist. As appropriate for the genre, the album was recorded live and presents five spontaneous pieces, attributed to all four members of the quartet. The music of the quartet tries to balance the trialogue within the string trio with a dialogue between the trio and the synthesizer, which often requires quite an effort from the listener, following the twists and turns of the plethora of sounds being created in tandem. The beauty of it is that the acoustic sounds of the string instruments and the electronic sounds of the synthesizer amalgamate together almost effortlessly and even "harmoniously", even when conventional harmony is not part of the happening. It is difficult to talk about beauty in the conventional sense as far as this music is concerned, but personally I found most if it aesthetically pleasing. The individual contributions of all four participants are electrifying and highly dexterous, as is the level of the "telepathic" interplay between them. Personally I appreciate the role of Mazurkiewicz as the anchor of the entire live event and both his arco and plucking technique are what keeps the music together. Before listening to the music I read my review of their previous album, and to my surprise it seems that the quartet found in this music some of the elements that I pointed out as missing then; this music is definitely more structured and intrinsically more coherent, which immediately results in it being more accessible that the two earlier albums. Of course this is by all means still a hard-core Avant-Garde, which eschews almost all conventional musical means of expression, but on the other hand a much wider circle of open-minded listeners should be able to "get into" this music without much ado and perhaps even truly enjoy it. While exploring this album I soberly reflected on the contrast between the emotional and intellectual effort involved in listening to this music and the nihilistic effortlessness involved in listening to thousands of almost identical conventional mainstream Jazz albums out there… thank God for the ability to think outside of the box…

Updated: 31/10/2019Posted: 31/10/2019

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