The piece was composed last year by Clara de Asís – a  Spanish composer and guitarist based whose presently based in France. The two players here are violinist Erik Carlson and percussionist Greg Stuart.  And it’s fair to say the composition stands at the slightly more shrill & difficult end of the Modern composition bracket.

The track sees the pair moving from simmering high pitched string sourness meets grainy textured repetition. Onto the silence broken violin slices that are broken up by sudden & jarring bell chimes. Moving later onto very piecing & at times sustained string sears & whistlers, through to gentle tolling & building blends of bright percussive bob & slow arching string drifts. In-between these sonic events we often get fairly long drifts of silence- all making this composition far from easy or approachable.

I appreciate the considered & often jarring feel of the structure of the track, as I do enjoy some of the textured & surprising percussive elements present here. What I’m less keen on is high, often piercing string moments- you see, I’ve been a noise fan for more than a few years now, but I still don’t enjoy work that utilizing high & often sustained pitches- which we get here a fair bit.

I guess how much you enjoy & get out of Without is down to your preference for more shrill & difficult modern composition. I certainly appreciate the concentration & skill of the two players here, and Clara de Asís  can compose work that is both surprising & at times building moody- it just felt as a  whole the piece didn’t wholly gel for me.