two plump daughters |cs204

18 engaging duos between Lash (double bass) and Cundy (bass clarinet), very warm and, as is emphasized in the liners, very woody. I was reminded at times of Holland/Bracxton--some of these sound as they could have arisen from a hitherto unknown session from 1971. I mean this in a good sense, btw; they manage to capture some of the same kind of magic, the same exploratory glee and purely sensual abandonment, tumbling through the multitude of gorgeous sounds that these instruments are capable of producing. As in the recordings I referenced in my write-up of Sum the other day, this pair manages to recapture a certain spirit, not the free jazz blowout but ore the kind of thing one heard on ECM early in its existence, a tempering of the insect-like efi world, edging toward an almost pastoral one, but where rigor and gentleness carried equal weight. A great joy to listen to, full of imagination and smarts. Brian Olewnick (Just Outside)

Contrabaixo e clarinete baixo: é esta a combinação proposta por Dominic Lash e Chris Cundy. "Two Plump Daughters" soa a madeira e ressoa na margem mais grave do espectro auditivo. Tem uma particularidade: os diálogos musicais são de uma elegância que não é habitual nos domínios da improvisação, onde impera o factor rudeza como marca de autenticidade. Para tal terá contribuído o facto de estas gravações terem sido realizadas numa capela de Cheltenham, Grã-Bretanha, com a sua acústica própria. Esta não se impõe demasiado nem encontramos aqui propriamente as ambiências de uma ECM, mas sem dúvida que a música tocada parece ter ganho a "patine" da intemporalidade e até um certo classicismo. Da parte de Lash há algo das suas actividades com o Set Ensemble, dedicado a interpretar o repertório "near silence" do colectivo Wandelweiser, mas também do jazz que toca com o Convergence Quartet, por sinal já editado pela nossa Clean Feed. Quanto a Cundy, se bem que este evidencie um lado "erudito" (na linha mais experimental de Cornelius Cardew), é sobretudo a sua faceta de músico de jazz, ou de uma improvisação com a ascendência desse género, que sobressai no álbum. Rui Eduardo Paes

Pleased to finally get a day off of work tomorrow after what I think has been seven straight days slog. Its been nice late tonight to sit then with an album I have played on and off over the last month or so, when I’m in the right mood for it. Tonight after a strenuous day at work and a nice dinner with Julie it has been good to come home and sit under an open window and listen quietly to Two Plump Daughters a recent release by the duo of Chris Cundy (bass clarinet) and Dominic Lash (double bass) released on Creative Sources. Dom ash is a musician whose range is, I think, as wide as anyone’s in the music today, as he stretches from near silent realisation of Wandelweiserian composition to textural quiet improv to noisier, busier improv all the way through to free jazz. While others also inhabit similarly extreme points along the avant garde musical spectrum I can’t think of anyone at all that can exist in all of these roles as equally well as Lash. He seems to be able to set off after performing an Antoine Beuger piece and head to a concert down the road with Evan Parker and Mark Sanders without breaking his substantially purposeful stride. I know few musicians who play as many concerts as Dom, and even less that seem to garner as many rave reviews wherever they go and whatever they do. As boring as it may be then, I have little negative to say about this CD release with Cundy, even though it sits in an area of music that can often stretch my patience and test my concentration.

Two Plump Daughters then is a long album containing eighteen well recorded studio (well, church) tracks recorded in early 2011. The music sits in that awkward to define area somewhere post traditional, itchy-scratchy energetic improvisation and more recent quieter, more textural playing. There are very few silences of any length here, and the music is all about a continually changing, intertwined conversation between the two instruments, but at the same time it never gets aggressively busy or over energetic, just as the volume levels are never pushed that high. The sleeve notes talk at length of “woody” things, drawing parallels with the instrumentation and the dry, breathy qualities of the sounds here, from both musicians and certainly there is an air of nature and its deeply rooted details, colours and textures present. As with most music of this type, I find myself marvelling at the simplicity of it all, just two acoustic instruments in the hands of their owners, folding and twisting around one another like two pieces of similar but not identical twine, sometimes knotted together into tight balls but always coming out the other side set apart, waiting for the next altercation. There is enough of a lightness and fragility to the music here to keep any signs of free jazz testosterone spillage at bay, but also enough momentum to keep the music flowing nicely. The album is just a really nice example of improvisation that makes no attempt to rewrite any rules and yet remains eminently listenable and a real pleasure to engage with. Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear)

The final record from the last batch of Creative Sources CDs I received – I wanted to review it before I left on vacation, but didn’t have enough time. Eighteen improvisations (eight minutes and under) between doublebass and bass clarinet, recorded in a chapel with a high wooden ceiling. As poet Steve Dalachinsky points out in his liner notes: the keyword is WOOD. Gorgeous sound, well-controlled extended techniques, and an obviously deep relationship between the improvisers. Very convincing. François Couture (Monsieur Délire)

L’accès est facile : pas de barrière de sécurité ni de caméra de vidéosurveillance. Jumelles, la contrebasse et la clarinette basse se surpassent à ne pas s’opposer mais, au contraire, à faire route ensemble. Dans l’espace qu’ils accaparent, Dominic Lash et Chris Cundy ne forcent jamais le trait, refusent toujours la demi-teinte. Ce sont des démineurs de grandiloquence, des ouvriers du souffle.

Dix-huit courtes improvisations ici et autant de cas de figure. Beaucoup plus en vérité. Morceaux choisis : une contrebasse qui active le pendulaire, racle, gronde. Une clarinette basse prisonnière du motif qu’elle vient de créer et qui s’en délecte avant de le disséquer avec conviction et autorité. Souvent les courbes des deux instruments se croisent, s’unissent, s’équalisent. Ici, la liberté sifflote plus qu’elle ne se clame. Une musique sans frontière ni clôture. Luc Bouquet (Le Son du Grisli)

Clocking in at eighteen tracks, For Plump Daughters might have been a grueling marathon slog. Instead, it’s a continually engaging entwining of bass: double and clarinet. Lash and Cundy are able to find all the right ways to lock their instruments together. Both have great knowledge of various “extended” playing methods, but the result is never harshly abstract or unhinged. Just the opposite, really. It’s an elegant, emotive album that at times simply soars. The track title “Gravity Leaves” about sums it up. Pleasing, pleasing tones. Dan Sorrells (The Free Jazz Collective)