Evans, Peter / Weasel Walter - Poisonous
SKU
ug-EXPLODE 71
Note: helpfully, for the many illiterate new-music fans, all the below is also in the video with some helpful extra photos and diagrams!
"MORE than just another free improvised music record - these two maniacs construct an alien world of instrumental insanity with just trum-pet and drums!
One day, Weasel Walter called his friend Peter Evans and asked him if he wanted to make a duo album. Peter said, “Yes.” Weasel thought to himself, “Hmm. This could - and should be more than just another improvised music record. At this point, we really don’t need to prove to anybody that we can “play”, on some kind of purist level. We know what we can do. Let’s push this whole thing a little farther.” Peter is internationally known for his singular prowess as a New Music trumpeter in a range of idioms, and Weasel has had a prolific and wide-ranging career working in many “unpopular music” forms, from Death Metal to Free Jazz, Brutal Prog to Noise and beyond. The two have worked together steadily for a decade now, including a trio with guitarist Mary Halvorson, which issued three releases on Thirsty Ear and Weasel’s ugEXPLODE imprint.
The two showed up at Seizure’s Palace in Brooklyn on January 8th, 2018 for a succinct three hour long recording session with engineer Jason LaFarge. Peter and Weasel set up and checked their levels quickly and efficiently. Only four micro- phones total were used on Weasel’s drumset (stereo overheads, snare and kick) and just one microphone for Peter. During the following two hours, Peter and Weasel made a few open improvisations as well as generating a bunch of pieces and raw material based on simple abstract premises Weasel had prepared for the session in advance.
The opening track, “Yellow Stainer” consists of two independent takes of trumpet and drums playing against 30 bpm and 50 bpm click tracks, creating a sort of implied 3:5 feel. Once the takes were compiled, Weasel ran a slow, single delay on one channel of the stereo mix to attain a further disorienting effect. The nexus between logic and chaos of the track is an underlying theme in both musicians’ work. “Satan’s Boletus” was a free improvisation executed at a deliberately very quiet volume which was later ultra-compressed in the final mix, bringing out details and timbres impossible to create through louder playing. “Sulfur Tuft” contains two independent takes of noisy trumpet techniques and fast, sustained drumming, sans effects or studio trickery. Both takes appear in opposite stereo channels in the final mix. “Hooded False Morel” is a pseudo- orchestral chamber piece. The harrowing background was made by Weasel from muting and layering short loops of free-tone tremolo material generated by the two. The main drum track was added from another unused and unrelated take done that day. Peter thought the piece was too long, so Weasel edited it down to half of its original length. “Bisporigera” was the better of two non-themed free improvisations recorded that afternoon. “Destroying Angel” is a sort of double concerto for trumpet and ratchet (with flanger and panning) made from layering and arranging free-tone unison cues recorded at the session. “Verpa Bohemica” is a suite made from the remaining different takes of thematic improvisations, including stochastic temple block hailstorms, dense acoustic trumpet noise, and ultimately, all of the recorded takes from the after- noon layered on top of each other.
After a few hours of playing, Peter was done, so they packed up and headed out. The first draft of the album was almost 80 minutes, but the two whittled it down to the best 45 minutes, and there you have it.The whole thing was done pretty quickly, because it didn’t need much work. The track titles are all names of poisonous mushrooms. Thanks for listening."
- Labelug-EXPLODE
- UPC192914307556