OTOMO YOSHIHIDE & PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE - 19th Of May 2016

Deservedly regarded as one of the pioneers of electroacoustic experimentation in Japan, Otomo Yoshihide is in truth a far more versatile and exuberant musician than he's often made out to be. One could even consider him the connecting link between two diametrically opposed national avant-gardes: that of radical minimalism (from lowercase to onkyo, to give an idea) and that of extreme noise, both absolute polarities in their approach to sound creation.

All the more so when, listening blind to this duo performance with the volcanic Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love — head of his own eponymous-acronym label PNL — it wouldn't seem far-fetched to mistake his guitar for that of Keiji Haino, the untameable sonic terrorist roaming the world's avant formations.

"Cat" and "Dog" are the ironic titles given to the two parts of this live session, recorded on 19 May 2016 at the DOM cultural centre in Moscow: a biting, abrasive meeting/clash made up of atonal progressions in the purest free form, breathless sprints between snare and cymbals, with few moments of respite during which the tension never really lets up.

The chaotic precision of their interplay clearly confirms what makes an improvised session good, if not excellent: mutual listening that never loses sight of the opportunities that arise in the call-and-response as well as in the empty spaces that can also remain just that, alternating syncopated sequences and bursts of furious noise with extended solos (both men reserve a few minutes each for themselves in the second part).

A veteran of dozens of projects — most notably The Thing and the avant-jazz orchestra Large Unit — Nilssen-Love shares the same schizoid inventiveness as Chris Corsano, a virtuosity aimed not only at rhythmic complexity but above all at the unpredictable direction of his fills, guided essentially by pure momentary instinct.

If steady climaxes don't give you enough of an adrenaline rush, this kind of improvisation could well be just what you're looking for: as far as I'm concerned, this is a field where the full power of the spontaneous musical gesture still survives, where thought turns into action within the span of a split second during which, potentially, anything could happen. All that's left is to hope that exhilarating encounters like this one become the norm.

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15/06/2018