The Most Beautiful Sounds Next to Silence

Strønen and Tanaka’s shared approach to music making from the ensemble ‘Time is a Blind Guide’ finds fresh impetus and direction in this trio with Lea.  The set opens with, ‘Bayou’, a melancholic Norwegian folk tune which Lea sings over sparse accompaniment.  I can see the logic in putting this piece first because it immerses the listener into the Minimalism the infuses the rest of the set.   This is revisited, as ‘Bayou II’, track 8, almost as a way of resetting the trio’s compass after their journey through collective creation.  Each of the improvised pieces build from either complete silence or a single instrument hesitantly exploring the space around it.  There is a sense in which the music grows organically from the collective will of its players, as if they are seeking the notes and patterns in the air around them and giving this form.  The form could come from tuned toms hinting at a melody, on ‘Chantera’, track 10, or rolling rimshots, on ‘Pasha’, track 2.  Or it could be gentle clarinet lines, on ‘Eyre’, track 6, ‘Dwyn’, track 7, or ‘Como’, track 9. Or single piano notes, on ‘Duryea’, track 3 and ‘Nahla’, track 4.  The piano notes evolve into lines reminiscent of Satie’s Gnossiennes in the ways in which a free-form structure undulates and mutates with jazz, folk, classical inspirations. On ‘Vasha’, track 5, these moods are reflected in clarinet lines and in the distant, tuneful drums.  ‘Duryea’, presents a different experience where piano and clarinet almost duel (good naturedly) in the building of the piece towards its ending, throwing in hints of folk melody.  In each case, the pieces introduce notes and phrases that, like ‘Bayou’, are revisited across the set.

Across the pieces, each sound that the musicians produce is freighted with meaning and there is a compulsion to completely immerse oneself in this, often straining to hear the fading notes rather like the effort after sounds of the musicians.  It is fitting that the set closes with Lea’s wordless singing, echoing like a song of the sirens that beguiled Odysseus until it fades into the echo of an echo.  And in this way, the listener is enveloped by the beauty of the music here. 

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