Philippe Lauzier & Carlo Costa – Interspace (Inexhaustible Editions/Tour De Bras, 2023)

By Stef Gijssels

Italian drummer and New York resident Carlo Costa’s music has been described on our weblog as “quiet and intense“, and as time progresses, each the quietness and the depth appear to extend. In Canadian bass clarinetist Philippe Lauzier, he discovered an ideal accomplice for this musical imaginative and prescient. Lauzier’s taking part in is sober and austere: single notes are sustained earlier than they evaporate in skinny air, or are contrasted with one single deeper tone. Costa makes use of a wide range of undefined percussion and objects to intensify, to color and to work together. Like zen artwork, the empty house across the music performs a essential function, extra as a basis than as a backdrop. 

The primary 4 tracks kind one lengthy suite, “Sincronia Vaga“, on which every participant had obtained various “quick motives, single notes and noise cells” to make use of inside a given timeframe. Through the years, Costa has moved away from conventional notation, utilizing a wide range of graphic scores, symbols, written instructions and cue strategies to merge and juxtapose composed parts with improvisation. This music was created in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, recorded individually, and built-in afterwards with some minor edits. The benefit of the moments of silence is that it facilitates the mixing of sound bits extra simply, even when there are some surprises occasionally. It sounds amazingly coherent in any case. 

The final observe, “Gentle Routine“, was penned by Lauzier, and is slightly over fifteen minutes lengthy. The composition is constructed round “two harmonic sequences of various lengths that dephase in counterpoint for some time earlier than returning to the place to begin“. Lauzier’s sound on bass clarinet is stretched and sustained by way of synthesiser, providing shifting multiphonic mesmerising tones, in opposition to which resonating bells, rocks, woodblocks and drum head rubbing are set in opposition to. The result’s – once more – a zen-like environment of shifting calm, of sonic purity, of balanced readability. 

That is now not jazz, in fact, however that doesn’t matter. It requires listeners with open ears and who respect the worth of sparsity. 

Pay attention and obtain from Bandcamp. 

Carlo Costa & John McCowen – Pianissimo And so forth (Tripticks Tapes, 2023)

On “Pianissimo And so forth“, Carlo Costa varieties a duo with John McCowen on contrabass clarinet. In three tracks totalling slightly greater than 35 minutes, we’re handled to a very completely different form of music than with Lauzier. The music is denser, extra nervous, extra ominous too, with subdued tones making an attempt to maneuver ahead with out with the ability to. The devices create a collective noise, vibrating, oscillating, stuffed with multiphonics, leading to tense and unnerving music. Costa’s percussion have develop into the supply of lengthy, stretched tones, somewhat than the crystal-clear bell tones on ‘Interspace‘, and lots of further sounds are arduous to establish or relate to a specific instrument. It is solely on the final observe that McCowen actually makes use of the complete depth of his contrabass clarinet, creating an environment that sounds even darker and extra despondent. 

The marvel of music is that one musician can have completely different, but equally rewarding, musical voices and even visions. Whereas “Interspace” makes use of minimalism to create an surroundings of readability, calm and peace, “Pianissimo And so forth” makes use of nearly the identical devices, additionally with minimal variations to create an surroundings of darkness, nervousness and pending doom. 

Each approaches are precious, and I can solely suggest listeners to present each a attempt.