Label: FiP Records, 2020
Personnel - Josh Sinton: baritone saxophone, bass clarinet; Ted Neufeldt: electric guitar; Giacomo Merega: electric bass.
What Happens in a Year is a singular, experimental trio fronted by baritone saxophonist and bass clarinetist Josh Sinton. With him, and helping to create a peculiar aesthetic that they could claim as their own, are guitarist Ted Neufeldt and electric bassist Giacomo Merega. Rather than shoving us into a constant state of alert, the group opts to operate within a free-form limbo that feels at once spacious, lethargic, cinematic and eccentric. Thus, listening to these improvisations may give you the sensation of a parallel reality, and yet my ties with what’s offered here are limited by the absence of surprise and major shifts in shape. It’s all very loose and subtle after all.
The musicians dive into an offbeat introspection on the ever-ruminative “Le Politique Des Auteurs”, give “Algernon” a floating quality with atmospheric and suspended abstraction, and infuse nearly ritualistic procedures wrapped in deep tones on “Sleepwalk Digest”, which, at a certain point, is washed in full guitar chords sustained for the desired ambiance.
If “Untethered” roams with more harmonic definition, then the closing number, “Music From a Locked Room”, boasts an infrequently palpable melody, relentless bass moves and guitar tapping.
The will to create something beyond the regular that could pike our curiosity is noticeable on the noir-toned “Netherland”, which features Sinton’s bass clarinet releasing somber drones and launching resolute attacks with extended techniques. The sudden rhythmic responses from Neufeldt stimulate the dynamics, while the bass noodling of Merega is not particularly focused on resolutions or transformations.
Merega’s bass stratum sustains the fine interplay between guitar and bass clarinet on “Change of Scene”, a piece that progressively peppers the early stillness with small doses of tension and responsive attitude. It ends in a nearly swinging motion.
The trio’s musing ambiguities require tolerance and some are are not easy to digest.
Grade B-
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Le Politique Des Auteurs ► 06 - Netherland ► 07 - Music From a Locked Room