CD – z6records

Gert-Jan Prins and Lukas Simonis are two experienced and well-known improvisational musicians. For their first collaboration they created some harsh and dissonant productions, run through with noisy insertions, whistles and weird effects, and a whole bunch of sounds made by guitars, modular synthesizers, microphones and drums used in a visceral and impressive way. Both the musicians demonstrate their background of specialist knowledge: Prins is at ease with the most rhythmical parts, with microphones and different effects. Simonist plays the guitar, the synth and the blippo box, an electronic generator of sounds, which acts according to the principles of chaos theory. Stylistically, the duo works on the edge between jazz and noise rock, with heavy use of established improvisational techniques. For example, this includes dichotomies (empty – full, rhythm – melody, repetition – difference, inside – outside), the tonicization or substitution of chords, and the alternation of instrumental interventions using specific forms of rhythmic addition and subtraction. In Mothers Of Exit the sounds are always events and the patterns and textures of the tracks presented offer continuous mutations, changes of atmosphere and energy levels, remaining substantially noisy but never conventional. The two eclectic performers also get back to their own instruments, the drums for Prins and the guitar for Simonis. At the same time, many other elements are very strong and present all over the work. The improvisational phraseological coherence of the duo is unquestionable. Although some elements might seem quite “minimal”, the whole set is not bare and shows an accentuated complexity. “Complexity is what is woven together”, Edgar Morin said, and here we can find multiple elements that together make a very vivid, sharp and enjoyable final result.

 

Prins & Simonis – Mothers Of Exit