Jon Mueller & Jason Kahn — Topography
The five pieces are built from a mix of percussion, analogy synth and cassettes, which are brought into grey animation by percussionist Jon Mueller(Collections Of Colonies Of Bees, Hat Melter, Pele, Raccoons, Telecognac) and Percussionist & electronic musician Jason Kahn who as well as running the excellent Cut label has worked with the likes of Dieb13, Steinbrüchel, Kim Cascone, John Hudak, Steve Roden, Günter Müller, Kevin Drumm. With all of the tracks here share a rather grey, dense and tense tone, with no really let up in the tension or shift into jarring or surprising tones- this is improvised music at its most sustained, edgy and suffocating.
Though I do enjoy this up to a point and can see really concentration and skill is at work here, I’ll have to say at times it feels a little too grey and tense for it’s own good, sure there slight shifts in the texture of the sound and detail movement but no major deviation, with all the tracks having a uniformed and controlled sound stays pretty constant and focused through-out. I’ve very much enjoyed all of Kahn’s past work I’ve heard and stuff he’s released on Cut and while I can appreciate what their doing here I just wish there had been more varation and shift in tone- but then I guess that would defeat the point of the release.