»Waterpercussion« | »Transformation«

If Derek Bailey sounds pretty enthusiastic, as reported on the footnote, I am definetely a little less. He says: »Very interesting, varied, exciting, dynamic, new ways explored by Shineform, congratulations«. The very first number of this improvised music duet (Georg Edlinger on percussions and Volker Kagerer on various electric basses, to make it short) is particularly loose and sounds more like a jam session than a great moment of improv. I actually never really hear the connection between both players apart from general agreements on structures or let’s say »contexts« (slow, fast, full, empty, pulse, no pulse etc.). But it’s true, they vary a lot from track to track and try to use different areas. The main problem is when a player seems so into it what he’s doing that he totally forgets what music is projected in front (or at the audience). It may be intense to react and move your mind and finger on the neck of a bass, but from where I stand I hear something a little chaotic and quite out of control. I’ll try to listen to it again, I promise. The second album seems more focused and I must say the presence of Nobili on trombone seems to get every one more into interaction and details. Nobili is a real good player in the tradition of George Lewis or Yves Robert, at ease with any corner of his instrument. His syntax already is much more developed, from phrases to sounds, from lines to flashes, he moves a lot. Unfortunately it seems to destabilize the drums who instead of challenging rather look for some beats to play. We’re all very happy to make records but one should think about listeners too.