Palestine, Charlemagne/Tony Conrad - An Aural Symbiotic Mystery
SKU
05-SUBROSA204192
"More than 30 years had passed since our last experimental duet. Tony arrived and decided he could stay for several days in Brussels and we casually started to play together one afternoon. Aude, my wife, remarks about that special moment that in 5 minutes if not less she heard a natural musical chemistry of beauty and power that greatly impressed her. Tony and I hadn't played or discussed about sound or anything in over 30 years. None the less the result were totally surprising dazzling and deeply satisfying so that we do some concerts together in Paris, Nantes, Naples & Brussels, the present recording made in October 2005 at the Mercelis Theatre in Brussels on the "Luc Ferrari Day" (an occasion where Pompidou Center in Paris presented an entire day in honor of the French composer Luc Ferrari who had just recently died in Italy). Our duet had no title though we were very conscious of Luc Ferrari's "presence in spirit" during that evening. How is it that Tony and I can play so magically together without ever discussing or planning or anything? I have no idea! IT'S AN AURAL SYMBIOTIC MYSTERY!" - Charlemagne Palestine Lago D'Orta July, 2006
Thanks alot Charlemagne but your description doesn't tell us shit about your new CD. I'm glad you and Tony are still buddies and that your wife thinks you guys sound great, but listen man, she's your wife, so of course she's going to say it sounds great, even if it sounds like total crap. Feel me on that one Palestine? I had to do a google to figure out what the deal with your album was becuase you clearly couldn't come up with the words to tell us. Get a publicist dude. - Simon/Wayside employee of the week.
"Improvisation is easy, and "neat" improvisation is only as hard as having a concept or a technique to get behind. But truly compelling improvisation? Nearly impossible, one of those flimsier-than-nebulous things that most can recognize but very few can create, let alone capture. There are no rules and no easy predictions. Anticipated gems corrode. Unexpected wonders delight.
For instance, there's not much to suggest that Tony Conrad and Charlemagne Palestine would work well together as improvisers: Both are most often relegated to support roles in 20th century composition and, more specifically, early American minimalism. In the 1970s, both made their way through the Kitchen, an experimental venue in SoHo that showcased early work from Steve Reich, Brian Eno and Pauline Oliveros, among others. Earlier, they were active in the 60s downtown scene: Conrad as the violinist and filmmaker who shared a loft with Velvet Underground bandmate John Cale and his ideas on Just intonation with Dream Syndicate founder LaMonte Young; Palestine as a ritualist explorer of electronic drones, brilliantly dense compositions for solo piano and vocal improvisations given to tribal leaps from the Western scale. What's more, before the two reunited in Belgium in 2001, Conrad and Palestine, both now sexagenarians, hadn't seen one another in three decades.
But-- on An Aural Symbiotic Mystery, their first-ever issued collaboration from what was their fourth concert together in three decades-- Conrad and Palestine happen upon one of the most inspired releases of either of their careers. And they do it by doing the unexpected. Neither Conrad or Palestine, both artists with stringent solo reputations, ever dominate the 52-minute performance. Then again, neither is doing exactly what made them notable. Sure, they're behind their famed apparatuses, Conrad bowing his modified, five-string violin and burning proper tone at the bow as Palestine constructs multi-spire monuments from a gaggle of keyboards. But this isn't minimalism. Mystery could only be considered 20th century composition if, in fact, that canon were to (properly) include names like Albert Ayler and Cecil Taylor. Instead, Mystery is a battle that starts nice and easy, Conrad building blisters over Palestine's smooth integument. Some 35 minutes in, Palestine finally augments an organ tonic that's been running the entire time, his demented sacral tones chasing Conrad's hellfire up through shifting cathedral arches. Soon they collapse, leaving Conrad alone.
But, in this collaboration, things become unsettled in the stability of solitude. Moments coalesce between Conrad and Palestine: Sometimes, they sound like a glorious, two-man take on the Art Ensemble of Chicago, emotions heated until they cinder into flurries of hot ash. As with Art Ensemble's Great Black Music, Mystery is more about a force and a feeling than an idea, though a dozen of those-- from Palestine's jig-jag scales that jump to dissonance without notice to the way Conrad taunts consonance even when Palestine lights upon it-- make their case. Palestine and Conrad burn through them all, squeezing out the air and carbon, much like Ayler's tenor saxophone at its peak. Conrad's violin even sounds like Ayler at one point, stuttering, guttural steps of spitfire spontaneity ricocheting off of Palestine's pedal points like thin sparks against a strong alloy. Ayler and his violinist Michael Samson built a similar solidify-and-splinter, distend-or-dodge repartee in the late 60s. Here, Conrad, on violin, supplies the splinters to Palestine's beautiful keyboard and vocal sustains.
It's a subversion that's compelling because it's unintentional, and potent because it's natural. If anything, it's proof-positive that, as heated improvisation goes, it doesn't matter who's playing what or how long (or here, how often) they have worked together. It's spirit and guts. And An Aural Symbiotic Mystery proves-- conclusively, dare I say-- that Conrad and Palestine have an abundance of both." -Grayson Currin/Pitchfork