Grappling

1.) Rose Petals & Rocket Propellant

2.) Concrete, Concussion & Cranberries

3.) Marzipan Manipulations

4.) Squirting Groceries

5.) Seagull Semaphore Slump

6.) Adolescent Steamroller Stomp

7.) Sherbet Flavored Hysteria

8.) Financial Celery Expletive Binge

9.) Broken Thermos Flask Fiasco

10.) Gangrene Gagging Clause

THE CHEMICAL EXPANSION LEAGUE

Adam Bohman - Prepared Strings and Objects

Sue Lynch- Tenor Sax/Clarinet/Flute

Adrian Northover - Alto & Soprano Sax/Wasp Synthesizer/Melodica

Ulf Mengersen - Bowed and Prepared Double Bass

Mix and sleeve design Adrian Northover

Artwork by Adam Bohman

Recorded at Oxo Studios, London 05.08.18 & 04.11.18.

Mastered at Tonus Arcus Studio, Berlin by Dietrich Petzold

The Chemical Expansion League

Adam Bohman, Sue Lynch and Adrian Northover, who work together in London as The Custodians Of The Realm, and Berlin bassist Ulf Mengersen met in 2016 on the RARA Festival of Improvised Music in Sicily, where they all were performing. In 2017 and 2018, when Ulf was visiting London to play with them in the London Improvisers Orchestra, they did three recording sessions with this quartet. Tracks from the last two sessions appear on this album.

The music sounds acoustic and very intimate. The Wasp synthesizer, that is played on a couple of tracks, is amplified only with its internal speaker. You hear a lot of fragile and contemporary sounds from scratching and bowing all kinds of objects and the double bass. Some melodies and other noises are added by the wind instruments. Altogether it sounds like they are playing a concert in a dentist's office while the doctor is at work, surrounded by hungry bird babies screaming for food.