The Pineapple Circumstances cs370

Lopes and Lonberg-Holm were recorded in Lisbon on April 2015, playing five untitled free-improvisations. Lonberg-Holm expands the cello's sonic envelope with assorted effects and pedals while Lopes employs his inventive, extended techniques on his effects-laden electric guitar, both transforming this duo into a much bigger sonic entity than just two musicians who play stringed instruments. The five pieces are poetic and free-associative soundscapes that offer strange and psychedelic universes. On the first two pieces, Lopes and Lonberg-Holm sketch fragmented, kaleidoscopic colors on a huge constantly-shifting canvas, patiently varying the nuanced and expressive textures with deeper and deeper layers of sounds. The tense and intense “III” introduces a whole different atmosphere, chaotic and dense one as the two investigate series of distorted broken sounds. “IV” resumes the previous, abstract vein, but adds tougher and darker shades to the dense texture. “V” suggests a brutal, explosive drone, full of weird, arresting noises, all emphasizing the intuitive and deep affinity between Lopes and Lonberg-Holm. Eyal Hareuveni (The Free Jazz Collective)