#auricle

Which is not to say that this is minimal music. They use instrumental preparations and additional instruments to facilitate stylistic migrations across the nameless spaces between jazz, classical music, and the blues, and each of this album’s fourteen mostly pithy pieces is a world unto itself. “Corners,” for example, is only a minute and nine seconds long, but it that time they realize a meteoric trail of constantly mutating information. The next piece, “Dock Driftings,” is almost twice as long, and as sparse as its predecessor was dense. But its lattice of hammered notes and mallet strikes projects the kinetic solidity of an atom. And the way Kimura’s high notes seem to bounce upon Hemingway’s dancing patterns imparts a sense of giddy delight. This music is varied and complete.

It is also a music of discreet parts which impart the personality and history of each musician. Even when Kimura commits to her instrument’s percussive potential, each player’s contributions add up to a whole that neither would realize alone. It’s worth noting that both have gone a long way to get where they go, and they have to travel to play together. Hemingway grew up in Connecticut, and he currently lives and teaches in Luzern, Switzerland. Kimura likewise grew up in Japan, but moved in her adulthood to Dublin, Ireland, where she is also an educator as well as a musician. In a time where travel and the sharing of creative information is increasingly fettered, they show by example how open-minded exchange brings out the best in humanity.