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patrick brennan / Abdul Moimême :: Terraphonia
Guy Peters
August 15, 2019
“I can’t understand why people are frightened or new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.”
Winged words from John Cage that feature centrally on the website of experimental guitarist Abdul Moimême. The use of it suggests that you should not expect ordinary music from this artist, and that is correct. His collaboration with saxophonist patrick brennan is just as unusual as his intoxicating solo album Exosphere, which was released two years ago.
For that album, Moimême went to the impressive National Pantheon in Lisbon. With two self-built guitars and a whole lot of extra material, he went in search of the essence: what can you do with sound and what role can a specific location (with its unique acoustics) play in the creation, but just as well in the dissolution of that sound? The album was a radio show that stayed far away from convention. It even took a special place within the specialty of solo work and was an impressive exercise in molding sound. That is an aspiration that returns here, but within the context of a duo interaction. Moimême once took lessons (tenor sax) from his American colleague, with whom he has been friends for twenty years, and clearly shares that inquisitive spirit.
brennan’s discography is fairly limited, but he is emerging here as a versatile revelation, with a wide range of styles and a disciplined approach to sound, space and silence. There are a few passages where he strongly raises the energy level and the density of the music . Much more often, however, everything remains under control, he travels from milestone to milestone via short detours, with abstract fragments interspersed with rhythmic phrases and sometimes percussive sounds that may or may not complement the unheard sounds of his colleague. Moimême plays two guitars lying on tables, and he does that with gloves on, with metal plates, bows and all kinds of objects. If at one moment it has some aspect of an intimate fiddle, it then, a bit later, sounds like a sudden rumble in a steel factory.
The acoustics of the Pantheon were exchanged for those of the well-known Namouche studio, but thanks to an inventive use of micros and a wide variety of approaches, Moimême covers an immense terrain. The guitars are never recognizable as such during these 64 minutes. They’ve been given a new assignment, to become sound generators full of abrasive, sliding, rotating and rubbing textures, which are answered within the goblet of terrafonia by brennan with mostly short eruptions, wrenched shouts that slip out, and open spaces. Sound again becomes something to be handled, and here (and in the related mycellerate) there also is a certain peace, a ritualistic openness.
Elsewhere you get combinations of swelling sounds and staccato jabs from the alto sax, while on nilch’i. telespire. nilch’i, the simultaneous playing of two guitars is maximized through deploying the two guitars toward opposing ends of the stereo spectrum. The result is a sort of auditory triangular relationship with brennan exploring between two dialogue partners. If some pieces have more closeness and intimacy, with a microphone that seems to disappear into the sax’s bell, then the shorter, fiery gotabrilhar seeks a connection with a slightly more jazz-oriented sound, even though Moimême’s dark textures prevent escape from the play of sound. And it is a play with sound, because, despite the air of seriousness that usually hangs over such releases, the feeling of openness and discovery remains tangible. The listener actually becomes one who partakes in that fascination with the unknown, or with what has not yet been explored,, which is what Cage had been referring to.