Acclaimed Canadian clarinetist and Norwegian pianist range across modern/avant jazz in a program of original pieces.

Acclaimed Canadian clarinetist (François Houle 5 + 1) and Berlin-based Norwegian pianist (Atomic) range across modern and avant jazz in a program of original compositions and improvisations. Charged rhythmic interplay and subtle textural shadings indicate the duo's mutual understanding. 'Incredible set of music, a triumph' - Ken Pickering, Artistic Director, Vancouver International Jazz Festival

What's unique about this duo is partly the timbral qualities and partly the performers' different but compatible approaches to composing and improvising. Houle brings his arsenal of extended techniques, including slap tonguing ('Woodhoopoe'), flutter-tonguing, playing without a mouthpiece ('Ged's Shadow'), and, in 'Fallen Angel', creating a melody softly shadowed a 12th below (this 'duo tone' is actually the fundamental with the 5th partial emphasized). But he uses them rather sparingly. Wiik's often dynamic free/modal approach brings out Houle's melodic gifts to the full.

As Houle puts it, 'I felt, as I listened back to the session's music, that there was this undercurrent of things unsaid, that we as musicians feed off of. A lot of fleeting shadows of ideas flying by, with the two of us trying to catch on to, play with, and release.'

Track Listing

• Father Demo
• Sparrowhawk
• Earth/Sea
• Nomenclatural
• Zirma
• Fallen Angel
• Ged's Shadow
• Letter to György L.
• Aporetic Dreams
• Meeting on a Line
• Ursula's Dream
• Woodhoopoe
• Hello Blackbird
• Strobe

Additional Details

Label: Songlines

Genre: Jazz

Run Time: 69 mins

Release Date: 08/08/13

UPC: 774355160121