#robert dick

If Wolves Could Buy CDs by Steel, Skin and Bamboo

Returning to that minor chord, and it is indeed a chord as Hemingway’s voice vibrates his snare, offers a subtle but clear picture of group chemistry in action from which the album takes off. “Quiet Please” presents the rapid-fire communication in staggering microcosm. It opens in the same sublimated space occupied by “Vedic”’s conclusion, but some composition is also evident. Of particular import are those restrained but energy-suffused multiphonics coming from one of Dick’s flutes. Adding Hemingway’s myriad taps and rolls, sometimes with fingers, on what sounds like snares-off snare and toms transforms the trio into a small ensemble. His cymbals, malleted and scraped, float and flutter by with speed and invention rivaled by each slide, puff and key tap as the two flautists converge, often picking up a note just where the other left it. The two flutes sound like a single instrument as they usher out the track in eerie thirds.

It isn’t that Gorn, Hemingway and Dick do anything other than they’ve always done, so those familiar with any of their numerous and boundary-defying projects will already know what to expect. It’s simply that they work so well together, that every gesture seems to complement the rest as the sounds fly by in alternating states of reflection and wise agitation. Check out Hemingway brushing that low tom, an anchoring device resembling a bass, while his sparkling cymbals and Dick’s chopped lines interact in meterless polyrhythmic counterpoint. There is also plenty more of that flute duo interaction, like the pitch-circling that infuses “Kausi”’s first moments, but equally impressive is Hemmingway and Gorn’s duo on “Vedic Reprise,” again with Hemingway’s resonant voice and as satisfying a conclusion as an album can have albeit without the minor chord! All three members’ voices get cameos, especially Dick’s basso profundo along with his bass flute. The trio’s instrumental doublings rival a Pierrot Lunaire ensemble in skill and finesse, from Hemingway’s steelpans to Gorn’s clarinet and the flautists’ continual interregistral instrument swaps. As the track title suggests, Gorn does play two ocarinas; imagine Rahsaan Roland Kirk if his travels had taken him to India. The recording is brilliant, both present and luxuriously atmospheric. Thanks are due Minus Zero for bringing such an important album to light. What an absolute joy it is to listen to this music, to partake in what was obviously such a meeting of like minds and kindred spirits! Yes, it’s healthy to maintain some intellectual distance. A few years in the academic world will drill that in deeply enough, but when the joys of creation are as palpable as they are on this expertly conceived trio album, distance be damned!