Grain

Communication: I disliked the last Zarek production given to me so much that I wanted to cross it out, but I get another one! (How fantastic or clever the rédaction is!) You see, press-wise, what really matters is a review or none. As a reader I’d often prefer a bad review to a fan-like one, because language and thinking are possibly involved (not always possible). »Music, like society, has to review the meaning of its agreed assumptions constantly…« (Eddie Prevost in »No Sound Is Innocent«.) The challenge now is: Keith Rowe is also very important to me. I push the play button: »Grain 3« (yes, it seems to be a rule of the label: one title, two colours, a few numbers etc…) has a different sense of time than »Grain 1 & 2« (more »soft-quick« if this makes any sense), since it is a live recording. Keith is clearly leading the duo whereas Beins is more formal and sparse in his playing. »Artists« (I promise I’ll come up with a proper term later, don’t know when actually…), what is it that they’re doing? Well, I think they invent space(s). Once someone has started, it will take a lifetime to modulate through existence, movements, styles, lives, its own intimate »something«. Thus, listening requires the something and the some time. Each record or performance should be taken as a slice or a piece. If not, the genre or social demand will be stronger, and we lose one for too many (eventually just another »file into«). Exception is the rule in art, and it is the role of social groups to want and yearn for the death of exceptions. It is very interesting to notice that masters such as Keith Rowe, AMM, Derek Bailey, Lol Coxhill, Evan Parker and a few more almost never changed their playing. Some musicians changed many things, from surroundings to territories, but the music was/is always an inside matter as much opposed to an outside form, period or fashion as possible. So, yes, it is a recording of/with Keith Rowe, or rather a »document«. Whether it’s more, less, good, or better than another one seems pointless to me. It is certainly a chance to follow, persevere, or discover his unceasing work and paths. Very good, fantastic, as always!