Trio of the late Rod Poole with Nels Cline and Jim McAuley, playing microtonal (perhaps just-intoned?) acoustic guitars. The guitars’ tunings and preparations make for some unusual timbres, and the improvising is first-class throughout, very sensitive. The players’ personalities really seem to meld together.

All tracks good.

1 (18:14): starts very slow, strums with plentiful silence in between. Around 3:45 it gets thicker, with interesting overtones and very warm resonance. Gradual gain in intensity.
You could fade this out around 11:30. Things get considerably more tentative after that, scrapes and plinks and occasional chords, that thickens up nicely and noisily.

2 (9:18): all three playing at once, bright and jangly. Pace is constant and fast.

3 (13:19): abstract, quiet beginning. There’s a bowed guitar that alternately whines and sounds vaguely metallic/feedbacky; otherwise this one is kind of mellow. Silence around 9:06 if you want to cut out early. The pickup afterwards is like the post-11:30 pickup on 1, but a little more hectic.

http://zk.stanford.edu/index.php?session=&action=viewRecentReview&tag=896159Trio of the late Rod Poole with Nels Cline and Jim McAuley, playing microtonal (perhaps just-intoned?) acoustic guitars. The guitars’ tunings and preparations make for some unusual timbres, and the improvising is first-class throughout, very sensitive. The players’ personalities really seem to meld together.

All tracks good.

1 (18:14): starts very slow, strums with plentiful silence in between. Around 3:45 it gets thicker, with interesting overtones and very warm resonance. Gradual gain in intensity.
You could fade this out around 11:30. Things get considerably more tentative after that, scrapes and plinks and occasional chords, that thickens up nicely and noisily.

2 (9:18): all three playing at once, bright and jangly. Pace is constant and fast.

3 (13:19): abstract, quiet beginning. There’s a bowed guitar that alternately whines and sounds vaguely metallic/feedbacky; otherwise this one is kind of mellow. Silence around 9:06 if you want to cut out early. The pickup afterwards is like the post-11:30 pickup on 1, but a little more hectic.

http://zk.stanford.edu/index.php?session=&action=viewRecentReview&tag=896159

Due santità dell’underground italiano si mettono insieme e danno vita a The Shipwreck Bag Show. Le due menti in questione sono il chitarrista Xabier Iriondo e il batterista Roberto Bertacchini. Mi viene subito in mente che questo disco si pone come una delle migliori, e più ispirate cose, partorite dall’Iriondo post Afterhours e post A Short Apnea.
Ed è tutto uno stopparsi, un gracchiare agro/dolce, un mescolare ricordi di blues marciti al sole, di un rozzo noise spezzato e distrutto. “Scoppia” è l’inno giusto per il dopo bomba, Roberto declama (“parrocchiani dove siete ora, continuiamo tutto, le nostre vite… è l’unica forma, è l’unica forma… permesso, permesso. Prima di tutto!”) con la sua voce fracassata e ululante e sotto Xabier con riff pungenti e rumorosi. Altro moloch è “Tuamare”, dove un’improvvisata litania per voce e strumento a corda si fonde e trasforma in un pesante stoner in stile Om. Il finale è tutto per una struggente nenia di origine popolare per strumenti a fiato e ritmiche sempre sfasciate. Primitivo.

http://www.rockit.it/album/10488/the-shipwreck-bag-show-stDue santità dell’underground italiano si mettono insieme e danno vita a The Shipwreck Bag Show. Le due menti in questione sono il chitarrista Xabier Iriondo e il batterista Roberto Bertacchini. Mi viene subito in mente che questo disco si pone come una delle migliori, e più ispirate cose, partorite dall’Iriondo post Afterhours e post A Short Apnea.
Ed è tutto uno stopparsi, un gracchiare agro/dolce, un mescolare ricordi di blues marciti al sole, di un rozzo noise spezzato e distrutto. “Scoppia” è l’inno giusto per il dopo bomba, Roberto declama (“parrocchiani dove siete ora, continuiamo tutto, le nostre vite… è l’unica forma, è l’unica forma… permesso, permesso. Prima di tutto!”) con la sua voce fracassata e ululante e sotto Xabier con riff pungenti e rumorosi. Altro moloch è “Tuamare”, dove un’improvvisata litania per voce e strumento a corda si fonde e trasforma in un pesante stoner in stile Om. Il finale è tutto per una struggente nenia di origine popolare per strumenti a fiato e ritmiche sempre sfasciate. Primitivo.

http://www.rockit.it/album/10488/the-shipwreck-bag-show-st

This is the second Acoustic Guitar Trio album, a follow-up to their 2001 studio-recorded release on Derek Bailey’s Incus label. Vignes was recorded live in 2003 at the Downtown Playhouse (on Vignes Street, hence the title) in Los Angeles. The three pieces here represent the edited highlights from two improvised sets. Judicious editing removed such distractions as traffic
noise, leaving what sounds like a pure set. Of all the live recordings of the trio, this is the only one that the trio scrutinized and unanimously agreed was ripe for release. It’s hard to disagree with them on that decision.

If an acoustic guitar trio conjures up echoes of Crosby, Stills & Nash or even McLaughlin, DiMeola & DeLucia, prepare to be surprised. This trio has few links to such paradigms; they play microtonal improvisations with no unison strumming in evidence. The trio’s members are Nels Cline, Jim McAuley and the late Rod Poole, who was murdered in the car park of a Hollywood diner. The three have very different styles of playing, but they combine and complement each other well. Poole’s microtonal tunings gave his guitar a distinctive sound, as does his occasional use of a bow. As on his solo album Gongfarmer 18, McAuley displays blues influences and employs a range of extended improvising technique, including playing below the bridge and detuning whilst playing. Although better known as an electric guitarist, Cline improvises well on acoustic, weaving fine detail around the others.
Such characterizations of the three do not fully do justice to the trio. Unlike their Incus album, on which they were clearly separated in the stereo image, here it is not possible to fully disentangle each player’s contribution from the others. No matter, at its best the trio doesn’t sound like three individuals but like one single-brained, many-handed entity. When all three are in full flow together, the results make for thrilling listening. This is not music to analyze but to wallow in. Cline tellingly
describes their methodology: “make up a tuning on the spot for each improvisation, look around at each other to find the nods and grins of agreement that meant a promising tuning combination had been arrived at, and GO. For Jim McAuley and me, it was challenging yes, but more like breathing; natural, nurturing.”

Sadly, Vignes marks the end for Acoustic Guitar Trio, unless Cline decides to release more archival material. For now, this album acts as a fitting tribute to both Poole and a unique threesome.

http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5052This is the second Acoustic Guitar Trio album, a follow-up to their 2001 studio-recorded release on Derek Bailey’s Incus label. Vignes was recorded live in 2003 at the Downtown Playhouse (on Vignes Street, hence the title) in Los Angeles. The three pieces here represent the edited highlights from two improvised sets. Judicious editing removed such distractions as traffic
noise, leaving what sounds like a pure set. Of all the live recordings of the trio, this is the only one that the trio scrutinized and unanimously agreed was ripe for release. It’s hard to disagree with them on that decision.

If an acoustic guitar trio conjures up echoes of Crosby, Stills & Nash or even McLaughlin, DiMeola & DeLucia, prepare to be surprised. This trio has few links to such paradigms; they play microtonal improvisations with no unison strumming in evidence. The trio’s members are Nels Cline, Jim McAuley and the late Rod Poole, who was murdered in the car park of a Hollywood diner. The three have very different styles of playing, but they combine and complement each other well. Poole’s microtonal tunings gave his guitar a distinctive sound, as does his occasional use of a bow. As on his solo album Gongfarmer 18, McAuley displays blues influences and employs a range of extended improvising technique, including playing below the bridge and detuning whilst playing. Although better known as an electric guitarist, Cline improvises well on acoustic, weaving fine detail around the others.
Such characterizations of the three do not fully do justice to the trio. Unlike their Incus album, on which they were clearly separated in the stereo image, here it is not possible to fully disentangle each player’s contribution from the others. No matter, at its best the trio doesn’t sound like three individuals but like one single-brained, many-handed entity. When all three are in full flow together, the results make for thrilling listening. This is not music to analyze but to wallow in. Cline tellingly
describes their methodology: “make up a tuning on the spot for each improvisation, look around at each other to find the nods and grins of agreement that meant a promising tuning combination had been arrived at, and GO. For Jim McAuley and me, it was challenging yes, but more like breathing; natural, nurturing.”

Sadly, Vignes marks the end for Acoustic Guitar Trio, unless Cline decides to release more archival material. For now, this album acts as a fitting tribute to both Poole and a unique threesome.

http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5052

Guitarist Nels Cline is so recognized as a force in contemporary music because he’s not really a “force”. In other words, his considerable technique, taste and penchant for cross-genre blurs don’t always take the spotlight.

The Acoustic Guitar Trio is more talked about than heard, recast in light and returning to regular mention following the untimely 2007 death of Rod Poole, the guitar wizard, cultural maven and just-intonation improviser. The trio recorded one album that was released in 2002 on Incus and until now, that was all the record-buying public had. Vignes was taped in 2003 at LA’s Downtown Playhouse and the set consists of three collective improvisations on which the instruments are approached physically using techniques like playing behind the bridge, at the head, pattering the hollow body or bowing the strings. That said, the music contained here can be strikingly melodic even as it doesn’t follow traditional tunings or sounds one expects from the instruments. The opening improvisation begins with throaty alap, Cline and Poole stretching out huge chords on either side of McAuley’s muted flecks. A dustbowl raga starts to emerge, rhythmic minimalism and lush overtones painting a canvas that’s layered with sounds born of equal parts Robbie Basho and pianistic preparation. The trio hits a “new day dawning” overture about halfway, then waves subside into thwacks, stabs and rattles atop Poole’s repeating microtonal plink. It is safe to say that Vignes is a window onto a sound-world many have never thought possible and its balance of personalities and highly individual direction make it a paean for the three-sided whole.Guitarist Nels Cline is so recognized as a force in contemporary music because he’s not really a “force”. In other words, his considerable technique, taste and penchant for cross-genre blurs don’t always take the spotlight.

The Acoustic Guitar Trio is more talked about than heard, recast in light and returning to regular mention following the untimely 2007 death of Rod Poole, the guitar wizard, cultural maven and just-intonation improviser. The trio recorded one album that was released in 2002 on Incus and until now, that was all the record-buying public had. Vignes was taped in 2003 at LA’s Downtown Playhouse and the set consists of three collective improvisations on which the instruments are approached physically using techniques like playing behind the bridge, at the head, pattering the hollow body or bowing the strings. That said, the music contained here can be strikingly melodic even as it doesn’t follow traditional tunings or sounds one expects from the instruments. The opening improvisation begins with throaty alap, Cline and Poole stretching out huge chords on either side of McAuley’s muted flecks. A dustbowl raga starts to emerge, rhythmic minimalism and lush overtones painting a canvas that’s layered with sounds born of equal parts Robbie Basho and pianistic preparation. The trio hits a “new day dawning” overture about halfway, then waves subside into thwacks, stabs and rattles atop Poole’s repeating microtonal plink. It is safe to say that Vignes is a window onto a sound-world many have never thought possible and its balance of personalities and highly individual direction make it a paean for the three-sided whole.