Distant Duos – Collaborative Experimentation
Bandcamp project Distant Duos adds four more tracks this Friday, May 29th, 2020. I’m very much intrigued by this concept. Here is the gist ,in my words, but if you are intrigued please read the description on Bandcamp. Bandcamp description is directly from the curator Mary Staubitz and mixer Russ Waterhouse. I missed the chance to review some of his recent work. You can check out his other Bandcamp project and adventures in sound in link below. Just in case five minutes will not suffice. Russ explores isolation and sounds that clock in long past your “normal” song but I say it’s worth the journey.
https://russwaterhouse.bandcamp.com/
https://distantduos.bandcamp.com/
Distant Duos features about 20 or so collaborative songs in which two artists are sequestered. Keeping the other artist in mind they create a 5 minute track without knowing what the other one is creating. The tracks are combined. The result are tracks that are so fresh, original that the thinking and logical mind of each artist cannot interfere.
The first of four I’ll attempt to dissect is Michael Rosenstein and Abdul Sherzai. Track starts synth groaning as if it doesn’t want to get out of bed, maybe an out of phase electronic insects wings flapping at a half speed frequency. Next the sound of heavy rain combines with the groan and takes over. As the track progresses the insects start to swarm and there are chirping noises.
This particular Distant Duo is a synth patch / electronic cornucopia.
Eleanor Moore and Anna Hochhalter are next. Anna Hochhalter on baritone and tenor sax, voice, b/w Eleanor Moore utilizing string and voices. The result are horn parts that I have not heard since discovering John Zorn’s Naked City. I do live like a veal confined to a musical vacuum this last decade or so , bear with me on comparisons. Her horns repeat a motif and a slower tempo more so than Zorn who generally runs fast blurts of notes ( re: his work with Naked City)
I’ll take a guess that Eleanor Moore’s strings consist of orchestra type strings. Maybe a cello, viola or violin due to the timbre of the sounds combined with the sax. The strings are more subdued like the under notes you hear in a more traditional jazz composition, but at times the back melody behind the sax could be a mellotron or piano sound that was warped. I can’t put my finger on it and as a Virgo i am trying to figure out how each of these artist did it.
Next, Greg Kelley and Vic Rawlings contribute their time to the Distant Duos bandcamp project.
Sounds of percolation permeate this track. I can’t help think of coffee brewing or cooking.
Greg Kelley plays trumpet whilst Vic Rawlings plays banjo , cello , and altered electronics. This track has sudden blursts and outbursts that could be a bow attacking a cello in a demented John Williams London Symphony vibe. The percolation steadily plods and boils on amidst the other sounds. About half through the cellic sound sustains and echoes like a foghorn for bit. The percolation that was a rolling boil seems to simmer down. The pot seems to be boiling itself dry and then comes back to half or 3/4 full. As it concludes it is as if the boiling sound has a white noise filter thrown onto it and the horny cello sound tapers off. The most perplexing so far.
Thomas DeAngelo and Daniel DiMaggio are fourth but not last. There is a preexisting song being played in this track that is turned down in the mix and altered as to take on its own context and life. The melded track against this sounds like someone tooling about their business with kitchen utensils or in their workshop selecting the tools for a job. The speed of the altered song speeds up and down like when you put your finger on a turntable to slow it. Basically the precursor to flange, but that is a different story. This could be a tape that has been purposely or randomly sped up and slowed down since it is written that Thomas plays tapes and tape machines. Daniel DiMaggio plays what he wants. The tracks end sound seems like a semi conscious memory of the two going between waking and partial dreaming.
All four of these Distant Duos tracks bring some wildly inventive sounds to the table.
I will be listening to the other 16 or so. If any of this piques your interest please send support via shares, pay what you like, or link a friend. In isolation and during challenging social times like these, true art can be born. Please check in to Bandcamp project Distant Duos as Mary Staubitz and Russ Waterhouse add new collaborations often.
— Meat
