Wednesday 16th December
So four more releases from the Another Timbre label then, bringing the total number of discs to appear on Simon Reynell’s labour of love close to thirty in just a couple of years. With four or five more planned for early 2010 AT has become the most prolific source of good quality music in no time at all. This new batch includes a release by one of my favourite improvising groups ever, The Sealed Knot. Not a bad way to keep things consistently strong if you ask me…
The ‘Knot (as all the cool kids know them) are the trio of Burkhard Beins, Rhodri Davies and Mark Wastell. Without getting up from my seat to check I think I am right in saying they had released four albums before this one over what must now be a decade of playing together, albeit it infrequently. In fact, this new recording, suitably titled and we disappear was recorded at one of the group’s last concerts playing together back in early 2007. A couple of days after this recording, which was made in Switzerland I caught the group play what was their last gig together, over in Dublin. I wrote about that one here. The good news is that they are set to reform in January for a gig organised by Simon at Café Oto in London. the new group will see all three musicians playing either slightly or dramatically different instrumentation, so maybe this album will be the last chance we have to hear the trio as we have come to know them. In 2007, The Sealed Knot were probably the last exponent of the acoustic end of the so-called New London Silence group of musicians that rose into people’s attentions at the turn of the millenium. Later groups involving the same musicians included electronic elements, often with Wastell utilising his amplified textures, but like IST, Assumed Possibilities or Quatuor Accorde before them the ‘Knot relied heavily on the simple acoustic possibilities of the instrumentation to hand, and the close understanding between the trio.
Back in 2007 Beins played percussion, Davies harp (though electronic accompaniments, particularly eBows were a firm part of his set-up then) and Wastell double bass, an instrument he didn’t play anywhere near enough in my opinion. The Sealed Knot, by this stage were a ridiculously tight unit. The timing of the group, the understanding between its members was incredible, maybe as good as I have ever heard. Perhaps as a result of this symbiotic relationship the music they made had begun to rest heavily on rhythms and circular patterns, one member of the group repeating a sound and the others clicking into place with it, helping the music revolve in small interlocking circles. Sorry for the highly personal childhood flashback here, but at this stage the group reminded me of Freddy Phillips backing group for the opening titles of Trumpton.
and we disappear captures a characteristically sprightly performance from the group. The music contains little silence but plenty of space and delicacy. Although much more happens, and changes in shape and form come far more quickly I often think of Morton Feldman’s compositions when listening to this group at this point in their existence. There are the same irregular rhythms, the same attention to the quality of sounds and the way they decay, and that chamber music feel of acoustic instruments intertwining via simple systems to create little fragments of subtle beauty. Oddly though I am also reminded of techno music often as I listen to this recording. There are plenty of moments when a sound, or combination of sounds are left to run, usually in some kind of cyclical pattern, only for a further sound to suddenly be added to the musical system, like an 808 bass drum suddenly kicking in on an acid house track. That is how tight, yet excitingly sudden the music feels. On occasions there are new, more surprising elements added in. Davies’ use of the eBow brings something new compared to previous albums. One particular extended heavy tone takes the music off somewhere else, but his sudden cessation of its use clicks the music straight into a new rhythmic circle, the response of the musicians to the sudden removal of this sound really quite remarkable.
If you know the music of The Sealed Knot, if you purchased Live at the Red Hedgehog, the preceding album that was recorded just a few months before this new disc then you know what to expect from the group. There is little on and we disappear that we have not heard from them before, but that matters not. Great music is great music, and when a trio develop the degree of understanding apparent on this CD then I can lap this stuff up all day. However it is easy to see why the group chose to lay off playing together for a while after this last string of concerts though, and why the reformed group will play with very different instrumentation. All three of these musicians are reknowned for constant change, and for not resting on their musical laurels. Perhaps as the group got tighter, and the music of The Sealed Knot became more recognisable things just got too easy for them, and rather than slip into a routine of regular appearances on the European festival circuit doing much the same thing each time it felt right to break things off and follow other threads for a while. While I support this move entirely it does no harm in my opinion to have this recording of the group in full flight spinning in my CD player right now. and we disappear is everything we expect it to be, gorgeously attractive, acutely sharp and a fantastic example of what can be achieved through the close interpersonal understanding between improvising musicians. A fine release indeed. Looking forward to what happens next.
From here forward, I refer to *the ‘Knot.*
I think Surface/Plane [Meniscus] may have been my first taomud purchase. Meniscus honcho Jon Morgan is here [Minneapolis], and his imprint did much to introduce these 3 stellar musicians to this corner of the world. I was really taken with their approach to group improvisation, the materials, ideas and gestalt.
yeah! The Knot. I was responsible for recording their only studio album, I think it was called Unloved Subject or something. What a weekend that session turned out to be!! Nice kids, but what a handful! Wistell was the worse. He kept attacking Beans’s drums with his upright bass. Ruined the neck. Don’t know what had got into him. I mean Wistell is a nice guy, but don’t get on the wrong side of his bass. Can you imagine Beans’s lovely minimal kit being crashed to the floor every ten minutes or so? In fact half the drum sounds on that CD were of Wistell attacking Beans’s drums. If you listen carefully you can hear it. Beans was listening to a lot of King Tubby at that stage, so we ended up with 48 tracks of essentially Tubby drum riffs and the sound of his kit crashing to the floor. Don’t know how we managed to piece that lot together to sound so organic and spacious. Rhubri was going through a strange time as well. He used to be such a nice boy, loved his mum and everything. Was the type of kid who’d phone you on New Years Day and wish you a Merry Christmas. In fact I think his mum is still on the scene, plays violin. Anyhow, at around this time he was playing a lot of fuzz pedal harp and wah wah. I think the battery acid must have got to his head or something because on the last night of the session we all went back to his hotel room to check out some rare Freddy Phillips’s Trumpton out-takes (we were all heavily into Trumpton; big in Berlin apparently, especially since the wall came down). But the TV didn’t work, so you can probably guess what happened next; out the window! But you know, these new flat screen TV’s just don’t seem to have the same explosive impact as the old cathode ray tubes. It just kind of floated to the ground. In those early EFI days telly’s really exploded.
Yeah, those were the times. Glad to hear they are reforming. I even forgive Beans for trying to steal my This Heat LP’s. Their new CD sounds delicious.
hehe, awesome.
“…rare Freddy Phillips’s Trumpton out-takes”
Straight Outta Trumpton:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSNMTa7Yd3E
Graham have you been at the mulled punch a little early?? Very amusing though. I particularly enjoyed the comment about Rhubri’s Mum playing the violin. I know someone who’s going to kill you for that!
and Phil… I was a huge Half Man Half Biscuit fan, still am I guess… I’m not sure I could ever forgive them for the Trumpton Riots though. The original music (minus Brian Cant’s singing!) was, and still is in my opinion really great.
“Graham have you been at the mulled punch a little early??”
No; but I guess finishing my tax returns, receiving an email from my accountant that everything appeared to be in order, plus the news that I may be receiving a rebate, had a similar effect to drinking too much mulled punch. You never know, I may be able to afford to order a copy of the new Knot CD from Mr. Wistell himself.
Glad you enjoyed it Richard and Jon. It’s all true, of course
Funny how time plays with your memory. I know it was something like 26 years ago, but I think Halliwelt has it completely wrong. I remember him as being very troublesome and actually quite rude on the Unloved session. Whenever The Knot got into it’s now world famous garage-funk-punk groove, Halliwelt would insist on pulling out his heavy metal machinary, the sadly extinct alto saxophone (isn’t it now so much more hygienic that grown men don’t put things to blow in their mouths anymore. It was a truly dirty business, my mum warned me against that when I was a toddler), and start spraying the room and The Knot, Machine Gun style, with germ infected spit and saliva. Absolute filthy little swine. We all went down with a touch of Brotzmann Fever soon after (actual World Heath Organisation acknowledged illness, look it up), grew heavy beards and had our heads shaved. Nasty I can tell ya. We none of us have been in the same room as him since.
I have the sole release by that Brotz-inspired version of the Knot, entitled Lung Butter, on the now defunct FMP subsidiary, Ecstatic Peas. Will trade for the equally rare Halliwelt post-bop date on Steeplechase, Giant Steps (amplified feedback version).
Joking aside, Lung Butter is a great title for an album. Nice one Jesse.
Richard, you saw us the very next night in Dublin. We played three concerts in three countries in three days. France, Switzerland and Ireland. Must have been mad. We’ve not played since because nobody has asked us ! Rhodri tried to fix up a few dates in the UK back in November, spent months on it, on and off, ended up with nothing. Hence the title of the album. Then Simon comes to our rescue and offers us a spot in January. Perfect gentleman.
Funny you allude to the techno connection Richard. The night this was recorded we actually played before Pan Sonic. Warmed the audience up for them nicely.
Really, Lung Butter sounds like an album Alastair would already own…
Interesting to hear the reference to opening for Pan Sonic. I can hear traces of minimal techno in there, but if they played after you rather than before you I doubt these sounds could have made their way into your collective subconscious. Maybe just coincidence?
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