… this music has the always-admirable quality of fusion, wherein the sounds aren’t readily definable or attributable to any one player.
Through their commitment to freeform musical motion rather than preconceived endpoints, this talented group of musicians has once again gotten it right on the first try. 8/10
[traduction française non disponible]
This trio came together for one brief evening, in the hours between Normand’s arrival to and swift departure from Calgary, on his recent cross-Canada tour. Normand, a fixture in Quebec’s fertile creative music scene (he lives in Rimouski, where he runs a space/series, and also spends good chunks of time in Montreal rubbing elbows with the Ambiance Magnetique scene). The choice of electric bass in an ’improv’ context can be a strange one, but Normand does an admirable job of renedering his instrument mostly unrecognizable. Multiple outputs, contact mics, and a bank of homemade effects assist in this. The Bent Spoon Duo, as usual represented by Chris Dadge and Scott Munro, cover a variety of sonic locales. Munro plays strings, electronics, trombone, SK-1, and voice. Dadge plays percussion, strings, amplified objects, and SK-1. For the most part, this is ragged electro-acoustic improvising, but more than once the set becomes heavily reminiscent of Philip Jeck and his gritty, swirling textures. Though not a usual reference point for Bug Incision music, we’re happy to see the similarities.