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Michael T. Bullock and Andrew Lafkas, "Ceremonies to Breathe Upon"
Recorded live amongst the very definition of urban decay, this duo of contrabass players demonstrate their exceptional ability at improvisation. Presented here as naked as possible (no overdubs, editing, or post-production), the result is a compelling minimalist document of both improvised music and a study of sparse, natural sound.
The Troy Gasholder House, in which this album was recorded live, is a perfect metaphor for the city and other so-called "rust belt" communities.Once teeming with industry, the loss of manufacturing work in the mid to late 20th century has left much of the city in ruin.Housing that was once luxurious is now boarded up, factories and storefronts mostly abandoned and just an overall sense of malaise is rampant there.Amid the broken windows and decrepit walls in the massive Gasholder Building is where this duo recorded this performance, and it captures both the artists’ playing as well as the atmosphere in which it was recorded.
Opening with high register bowed bass work, the sound channels the horns of trains entering and leaving the city at a time when business was thriving and the economy was stellar.However, the occasional ambient noise of Bullock or Lafkas moving amongst the fragmented bricks keeps the proceedings in modern times.The horn-like notes depart, slowing in their appearance and fading off into silence.
The earlier parts of this collaboration are somewhat lighter in mood:the notes are more in the mid and upper register, coming and going as sparse, passing clouds of sound, with the silent moments carrying the same weight as the musical ones.For the first half, the sound slowly swells in intensity to the point that one can almost feel the strings vibrating physically before retreating into sparse, droning undulations.
At around the half-way point, despair kicks in, with the sound becoming lower and darker.Cold, rumbling notes are met with desperate, morose higher parts, and later percussive string plucks to create a more commanding, forceful sound.The latter parts of the piece bring in more elements of chaos, such as the abrupt string scrapings over the softer droning moments and finally dissonant, discordant notes crashing together to conclude the disc.
Intentional or not, the sound mimics the setting of the recording extremely well, even without heavy reliance on the natural reverberation and architecture of the location.All of that does creep into the sound, but it is overshadowed by the duo's cautious control of their instruments, creating a rich work without the need of any other tools than instruments and location.
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