Larry Orchs & Gerhard Clever — Songs Of The Wild Cave
The release appears in the form of a CD on Frances Rouge Art label- featuring the labels house style red & black text & lined border looking. Inside the six panel digipak we get a black and white picture of the pair performing the album, as well as a write-up about the recording of the album and some of the themes behind the recordings.
The album was recorded live in October 2016 in the Portel Cave- an ancient Magdalenian painted cave in southwestern France. Apparently, the pair recorded the session in darkness/ near darkness, in a short but dense recording session which found the duo exhausted.
Each of the seven tracks here have runtimes between two-to-fourteen minutes- and while each is fairly shifting/ at times lose in their structures, each piece stands on its own. The album begins with the just over nine minutes of “First Steps” – this sees Clever’s fluid percussion moving between dense watery rattles, slashing & lashing tribal like dwells, and more random ritual bell movement. Around this Orchs sends out vivid, at times violent honks & wails- which flit between harmonically smoky, and bullish seared.
As we move through the album we come to the near ten minutes of “Deeper” which sees Orchs unravelling a rapid series boisterous & angular baying sax work- around him, at first Clever lays building clusters of subdued cymbal rush, but as time goes he adds in more bounding–yet- blunt hits & cascading crashers. All making for a track, that just builds & builds with its intensity.
"Ringing in it" finds the pair carving out seven minutes of sourly seared, yet oddly ritual improv- which sees Clever creating a swirling- yet detailed subdued stream of rattles, shimmers, darts & rings. Over this Orchs stretchers warbling & mysterious piping- that hints at ancient & Arabic semi-harmonic charm.
The albums topped off with "Light From The Shadows"- which is the longest track here at over fourteen & a half minute. From the outset, things are a lot firmer & bounding with this track, as Clever creates a constantly crashing haze of percussion- around this Orchs creates a detailed & taut structure of honks, seared bays, playful flits, and the occasional more cheeky & joyous wail. It’s a most satisfying end to the album, and you can certainly see why after working their way through this track they were so exhausted.
Through-out Songs of the Wild Cave the pair really seem to be challenging both their actual cave surroundings and the darting & shifting spirits that resided within the cave. All to create a wonderful shifting & powerful record, that flits between improv, avant jazz, and seared-but- more formal jazz tribal cross-breeds.