MILO FINE B flat clarinet (electronics), alto clarinet, marimba (electronics), voice
VIV CORRINGHAM voice
CHARLES GILLETT electric guitar [on 3 - 6]
DAVU SERU percussion [on 3 - 6]
1 - PAJAROS DE CUENTA - 10:53
2 - THE VIRULENT CERTAINTY OF IGNORANCE - 10:56
3 - THE OUTERMOST PLANK - 23:38
4 - BLACK AMERICA - 8:02
5 - THE UNSWERVING PUNCTUALITY OF CHANCE - 9:22
6 - THE SALAMANDER DEPARTS - 9:43
Digital concert recording made in Minneapolis (Acadia Cabaret Theater)
by Milo Fine - 2005 June 14
Total time 72:58
All previously unissued
Davu Seru's growing interest and involvement in improvised music prompted him to contact me in 2000. The ensuing dance of conversation and private sessions not only yielded collaborative concerts in short order, but several recordings (Shih Shih Wu Ai 10, Elfin 1/2, Elfin 3), and, perhaps most importantly, a vital interpersonal dynamic.
Though I first met Charles Gillett in the late nineties, it wasn't until a few years later that we really started getting to know one another, and a bond of genuine friendship started to form. Simultaneously, I learned that, in addition to being an avid listener to improvised music, he was developing a distinct approach to the guitar for use in the field. Thus, it was nearly inevitable that we would work together; and have indeed done so since 2002.
I'd come across Viv Corringham's name from time-to-time over the years, but my first exposure to her work was the exquisite duet she played with violinist Angharad Davies at the 2003 Freedom of the City festival (documented on Emanem 4212). When she made her way over to the table at the back of Conway Hall, where I was seated overseeing my CDs and LPs (hers being in close proximity), I took the opportunity to introduce myself and express my deep appreciation for her set.
I received an e-mail from Viv the next year. She and her husband were moving to Rochester, Minnesota, which is a little better than an hour south of Minneapolis/St. Paul, and is anything but a hotbed of improvised music, or creative endeavour for that matter. Rightly thinking that the Twin Cities might provide some much needed opportunities and stimulus, Londoners Tony Wren and Marj McDaid suggested that she contact me.
Within a relatively short time of her move, she came up for a concert at Homewood Studios, where I curate and appear in a bimonthly series (alternating months with a series I oversee at the West Bank School of Music featuring the Milo Fine Free Jazz Ensemble). We then got together to play at my home as a duo, and, from there, a quartet with Davu and Charles, and trios with keyboard player Jason S. Shapiro and bassist Elizabeth Draper. And, while I would have liked to debut the considerable fruits of our collaborative work and blossoming friendship at Homewood, the events there for 2005 had already been booked. So, we opted for the Acadia Cafe, which, for several years, has been the site for a weekly series of improvised and so-called experimental music. Subsequently, the quartet featured on this CD planned to reconvene twice in March of 2006. The first concert, at Homewood Studios, was reduced to a trio (without Viv) due to a snowstorm, though the weather cooperated for the following week's set at Acadia. And while nothing beyond private sessions is 'on the books' at the time of this writing, it is almost certain (life's vagaries notwithstanding) that Viv's and my duo, this quartet, and other groupings, will be ongoing.
MILO FINE (2006)
Moving from London to Rochester, Minnesota in 2004 was a shock on many levels, not least for its Siberian winters and apparent lack of any musical activity outside the churches. Luckily I had been advised by friends to contact Milo Fine, a key figure in the Minneapolis improvised music world as a musician, fluent on many instruments, and as a curator of a long-standing music series. I knew the name but not the person. I checked his website and found it as concerned, perceptive and mischievous as the man himself turned out to be. We clicked musically and conversationally, both having an abundance of opinions on almost every subject.
I anticipate that this will be an ongoing friendship and collaboration, and I am grateful to Milo for introducing me to other talented musicians in the Twin Cities, notably Charles Gillett and Davu Seru who also appear on this recording. This was the first public performance for the duo of Milo and myself, and for the quartet with Davu and Charles.
VIV CORRINGHAM (2006)
"It's taken me a week to absorb the full impact of this album. I spent the first couple of days playing the duets over and over; couldn't get beyond them. I guess I've heard enough free/improvised music by now to expects passages where the players are feeling each other out, passages where 'conversations' take place, and - of course - times when the players play independently in unison, almost as though everyone has to say something NOW, before they forget what it was. I also frequently hear passages where the musicians play 'together' in unison, really listening to what the other has to say. But here, there are several incredible moments when Fine and Corringham suspend the duet and appear to merge into one, unison voice, and THAT is something I definitely don't hear very often. This is especially noticeable during the Bb clarinet with electronics - voice passages, and was the main reason I couldn't get past these tracks for a couple of days.
When I finally decided to play the rest of the album, I got an even bigger surprise, especially when I came to Black America and The Unswerving Punctuality of Chance. Seru and Gillett seem to know exactly how to blend with you and Corringham to create more of those 'one-voice' peaks that, for me, are the centerpieces of this document. In fact, I wound up viewing - and listening to - the four quartets as a suite, with The Outermost Plank providing an introduction of sorts, and The Salamander Departs functioning as an epilogue. This is an absolutely STUNNING work."
LOU SANTACROCE - private email 2006
"SENILITÀ is quite a difficult listen, first and foremost for the extreme concentration of microscopic activities, tiny details and events that the artists try to control throughout the 72 minutes of the disc. Fine is a perfect example of dichotomised neural network, in that his playing - on both instruments - is so densely complex, segmented as it is in a series of uncontrollable patterns, that it must be necessarily judged as a whole system without caring about nuances or - heaven forbid - 'style'. Talking about which, Corringham is slightly more collocable in a zone of female voices situated about halfway through Shelley Hirsch and Julie Tippett; nevertheless, she remains anchored to certain basics of her own school - narrow glottology, multiphonic sensitiveness and total openness to the dialogue with other instruments - that define her singing as a thoroughly personal physiology. The tracks with Gillett and Seru are probably even less palatable for the uninitiated - not less interesting for me, though - as the jarring timbral behaviour of electronically treated sources and Gillett's harsh electric guitar sounds, mixed with the unfriendly kind of percussive work by Seru, create a peeling interaction that is certainly not for everyone's ears."
MASSIMO RICCI - TOUCHING EXTREMES 2007
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