CD – Mutable
He’s back to delight lovers of more “purist” experimentation. Al Margolis – aka If, Bwana – is an acrobatic audio-artist, active since the eighties, who remains effective and calibrated in the production of concrete techniques, weaving improvisation and deliberation, combining acoustic instruments, eccentric vocals and delicate dissonances. Sequenced organic drones, not free from the influence of certain avant-gardes of the sixties, highlight deep vibrations between the piercing notes of the trombone, synth, flute and computer, in refined atonal passages and overlapping layers of sounds and audio emergences. The project involved a number of musicians including vocalist Lisa Barnard Kelley, Monique Buzzarté, Tom Hamilton, Elizabeth Smalt, Bob Gilmore and Jacqueline Martelle, just to name a few – all of whom are experienced in moving between hard passages. Listeners are presented with atmospheres that are often gloomily hypnotic and prone to surreal and thoughtful collages, sophisticated in their textures but accessible to anyone willing to pay attention to non-conventional and poetic harmonies.