Label: AKP Recordings, 2024
Personnel - Dave Harrington: guitar, electronics; Max Jaffe: drums, sensory percussion, effects; Patrick Shiroishi: saxophones, bells, tambourine.
The trio co-led by guitarist Dave Harrington, drummer Max Jaffe, and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi delivers deeply improvisatory yet subtly nuanced performances in their debut album, Speak, Moment. Comprising five collective improvisations recorded in a single afternoon, the album explores atmospheric sonic environments with intuition and spontaneity.
The album opens with the guard-down rubato balladry of “Staring Into the Imagination (of Your Face)”, whose wispy contemplative tone results from tranquil saxophone melodies with slightly dissonant slips and vibrato, ambient guitar, and coruscating brushwork with incidence on cymbals. At the end, we can hear an arpeggiated sax phrase that repeats with electronics in the background. “How to Draw Buildings” has Harrington assembling droning persistence, Eastern melodies, and rock experimentalist over Jaffe’s shamanic percussion. The sounds become weepier as the piece progresses.
“Dance of the White Shadow and Golden Kite” takes the form of a hypnotic elliptical dance with strange exoticism exuding from the rich timbres of the rhythm. There’s admirable saxophone work and effects here, and the overall picture transports us to some eclectic ECM albums by Jan Garbarek and Collin Walcott. Contrasting with the other pieces, “Ship Rock” channels the skronky guitarism of Sonny Sharrock, in a combination of shredding, staccato-infused electric guitar, fleet saxophone lines, and high-strung drumming.
The album concludes with “Return in 100 Years, the Colors Will be at Their Peak”, a foray into freer territory after walking a tightrope between Eastern and American sounds. Tidal guitar waves are pelted with distortion, the saxophone toggles between gravitation and compression, and the percussion mutates with elasticity. It ends with raspy droplets of guitar, while angular asymmetric saxophone lines fizz between the cracks.
Sharing a positive and open affiliation, this trio delves into charming ambiances with an impulse to disrupt the norms and redraw the lines.
Favorite Tracks:
02 - How to Draw Buildings ► 03 - Dance of the White Shadow and Golden Kite ► 05 - Return in 100 Years, the Colors Will Be at Their Peak