Hollow Wood cs487

Psychoacoustic phenomena, extended bowing techniques and just intonation, hypnotic overtones and deep tones are promised to the brave ones who will experienced the challenging meeting of Portuguese, Berlin-based cellist Guilherme Rodrigues and Swedish double bass player Johan Moir. The duo was recorded at double bass player Alexander Frangenheim’s Studio Börne 45 in Berlin on June 2017.
The classically-trained Rodrigues work in ensembles ranging for contemporary classical to free improvisation, has created music for dance, theater, radio, television and silent film and has recorded dozens of albums for Creative Sources Recordings. Moir leads his own ensemble and collaborates with his wife, Casey Moir, in the Ignite duo. He explores the acoustic possibilities of the double bass by using extended techniques and preparations as well as his knowledge in just intonation, to create an interesting flow of overtones and soundscapes.
Rodrigues and Johan investigate the outer limits of the hollow wood of their instruments, with great focus on detail and remarkable discipline. Their instruments become an imaginative sound generators, producing a rich palette of sounds, from the haunting and ethereal, almost silent drone of «Airy», through the mysterious, percussive touches on the title piece, the quiet song of overtones on «Overtonestringing» or the gentle noises of «Fly» and the talkative dialog of «Spiritus». But more often these mad scientists of bows and strings sound as attempting to decipher an incantation to a higher sonic enlightenment, No doubt, they are on the right way.
Play it loud and in a dark room for maximum effect. Eyal Hareuveni (salt peanuts)

Med olika tekniker prövar sig Guilherme Rodrigues och Johan Moir rätt försiktigt fram i ljudlandskapet med sina ihåliga träinstrument, cello och kontrabas. Instrumentljuden blandas, klangerna går samman eller blir egna. Vem som spelar vad, eller vem som låter hur, blir inte viktigt.
Intensiteten stiger ibland utan att spänningen ökar, som i Spiritus eller Jumping bows där de båda sågar energiskt. Fast oftast är musiken långsam och avslappnad, om man exempelvis jämför med den långsamma men laddade Seagull sonatas på Konvoj Records (recension här intill). På Hollow wood är det lite som att sitta och blunda och lyssna på en sommarbrygga (utan måsar), det kluckar, rasslar och knirkar hemtrevligt. Duon är samstämmig och samarbetande, ganska säkra på vart de vill med musiken. Avslutande Intense spetsar först till känslorna, drar sedan mot samsyn – och tystnar. Leif Carlsson (Lira)

Duos for cello and double bass with an emphasis on "other" ways of playing. Slow and mostly quiet, these nine pieces are surprisingly varied in their sounds and timbres. Grainy, rasping drones swell like waves behind a steady high wail, and odd melodies arise amid sibilance and extended creak. A queasy mosquito whine nags above more solid repetitive sawing, giving way to sing-song harmonics in the midst of groaning, pressurized wood — an old-time ship in a tempest, albeit contained in a bottle.
There are short motifs in evidence, conglomerations of repeating sounds that set a scene before mutating or falling away. A bit of quiet stop/start with squeak and shriek inserted. Tearing paper. At times you'd be hard pressed to name the sound sources, as Rodrigues and Moir are both adept at finding and exploring completely alien worlds. As time passes, things do get a bit more insistent, even strident perhaps. Listen closely though and the grain is always there, revealed by the quiet dissolving of varnish. Jeph Jerman (The Squidco Ear)