Frank Paul Schubert/Isambard Khroustalio - That Would Have Been Decent [Not Applicable Recordings - 2018]That Would Have Been Decent is a woozy–to-caustically seared journey into modular synthesizing & avant Sax playing. The six track CD falls in the gaps somewhere between avant jazz, often manic improv, abstract electro texturing, and roasting-to-alien sound-tracking. The CD comes in a fitting quirky & bizarrely illustrated six panel digipak. Over the outside panels you get a pink housed suburban landscape, that’s moving with this grotesque cartoon-like creatures. Some are made of out of spurting black tar & have coloured heads, then we have a smiling poo ball, a cowboy hat wearing smiling cloud, and massive winking peanut monster. It’s a really neat and most suitable illustration for what's sonically found inside this release
The release has a relatively compact runtime of thirty-nine minutes- with each of the six tracks running between three & seven minutes. The album finds the London based duo of Frank Paul Schubert( Soprano Sax) and Isambard Khroustaliov (Modular Synth & computer) carving & stretching out wonderful strange & often manic soundscapes- which are alive with both warbling ‘n’ inventive Sax craft, and melting-to-seared yet surreal electro texturing.
The album was recorded after a brief rehearsal- and it really highlights the pair’s creative & highly effective collaboration. Over the length of the album moving from rapidly shifting & manic piles-up, onto playful noise bound & quirkily interplays, through slightly more brooding & stretched sound-scaping, though to angular electro/ wind seesaws. You certainly never get any time to get bored or jaded by what’s going on here, as the pair managed to keep both a feeling urgency, invention, and flair through-out.
After discovering, the rather wonderful Remote Viewers, & their brand of avant-to-darkly noir themed jazz late last year. It’s great to come across another great experimental jazz releases from the London scene. If you dig where avant jazz meets seared-yet playful electro texturing- you really need to go & pick up a copy of That Would Have Been Decent. Roger Batty
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