THEN THORUGH NOW slipped by when it was launched in late 2022, nevertheless,
this duo recording of Evan Parker and digital sound sculptor Henry Dagg
is definitely price a fast consideration. The music is a group
of free improvisation that includes the 2 musicians in a dialog by way of analog electronics.

Dagg, a former sound engineer for the BBC, is a builder of somewhat distinctive
devices. Right here, he performs his constructed for the event, pre-digital Stage Cage*, which captures and reprocesses Parker’s soprano sax
in addition to generate its personal burbling tones. Such collaborations, per se, is
not new musical territory for the saxophonist. Parker has lengthy been concerned
with electronics, going way back to the late Nineteen Sixties with the Music
Improvisation Firm and later by way of his personal work together with his
Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, which picked up velocity within the Nineteen Nineties. Each
collaboration is completely different although, and on THEN THROUGH NOW, Parker blends his
trademark solo saxophone language enjoying together with his Dagg’s oscillating
electro-acoustic musical machine.

The recording begins with 45 seconds of close to silence earlier than a flutter of exercise
from the keys of the saxophone. A sluggish construct up of wind passing by way of the
instrument results in a circle of nascent tones that begin to mix with digital waves. These waves aren’t arduous reduce digital tones, not even blips and
bloops, however somewhat curvaceous musical shapes that function atonal melodic
accompaniment to Parker’s personal excursions. Because the improvisation continues,
new sounds and prospects emerge. About quarter-hour in, Parker’s notes are
being reprocessed, reformed, and replayed, producing some bracing
sonic textures. On the 20-minute mark, Parker’s intense round enjoying is
skewered by pulsations from Dagg’s machine. All through the 56-minute
recording, the duo discovers dense knobs of sound in addition to revels in
relaxed, open fields. General, fairly a worthy journey.

THEN THORUGH NOW’s label, False Partitions, is presently engaged on releasing a 4 CD boxset of Parkers’ solo recordings within the fall, honoring the saxophonist’s eightieth birthday.

The Stage Cage contains 4 valve test-oscillators, a pair of ring
modulators, frequency shifter, chromatic zither, and a variable tape delay
system (consisting of two quarter-inch tape machines, eight ft aside – the
first machine data, and the tape runs previous moveable playback heads to the
second machine, permitting a number of replays). Henry’s fundamental efficiency
interface is a ‘dynamic router’: a five-key controller, which is the bridge
between a lot of the elements of the Stage Cage.