Label: Out of Your Head Records, 2019

Personnel - Nick Dunston: double bass, vocals; Louna Dekker-Vargas: flutes, piccolo; Ledah Finck: violin, viola; Tal Yahalom: guitar; Stephen Boegehold: drum set.

Brooklyn-based bassist/composer Nick Dunston’s debut album, Atlantic Extraction, translates into a capable, lopsided modern chamber-esque work designed with both conformity and obliquity, symmetry and shapelessness. Although unconventional, the instrumentation is utterly appealing thanks to the energy channeled by the kindred spirits on the album: flutist Louna Dekker-Vargas, violinist Ledah Finck, guitarist Tal Yahalom, and drummer Stephen Boegehold.

“Tattle Snake” initiates its seven-and-a-half-minute ride with a brushed drum solo introduction before unison lines show up to define the main statement. A middle passage glues deep cuts of bowed bass and violin interjections, and the strong bass-drums coalition prepares the terrain for intrepid guitar inflections. The quintet often brings elements of surprise into the game, and if “Dunsterlude” dives into melancholy, then “Delirious Delicacies” highlights energizing atonal violin streaks on top a fast-paced tapestry that gradually decelerates. A magnetic groove is then firmly placed and Yahalom’s guitar dances to this sort of samba with virtuosic vividness.

While Appalachian folk melodies clash into modern rhythms on “S.S. Nemesis”, “Vicuña” has a whispering modern classical abstraction bookending a middle section marked by a sturdy groove and adventurous guitar explorations.

Spread amidst this variety of longer, well-written tunes there are short erudite collages and string solos, whose tonal constancy is greater than the one presented on the mutable “Globular Weaving” and “Contraband Peanut Butter”. The former presents dissonant guitar strokes as a perfect foil for the dulcet flute, and combines lucid percussion and sweeping string work into an imminent cacophony; the latter, occasionally shaken by a mild contrapuntal activity, promotes an inexorable combination of avant-garde jazz, calm chamber reflections, and looping odd-metered rocking groove.

The offbeat “A Rolling Wave of Nothing” features Dunston on vocals, whereas “Zoochosis”, a piece that seems to draw from Henry Threadgill's sonic universe, grabs us by the collar and pulls us in.

This quintet has been around for a while and this recording shows off the fruits of their strong rapport and fierce commitment. Dunston’s music immerses the listeners in a world of ambiguity, scoring big with the aggregation of both written and spontaneous ideas. Atlantic Extraction is a wonderful debut from a qualified young bass player from whom we expect even more in the future.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Tattle Snake 04 - Delirious Delicacies 16 - Contraband Peanut Butter