Tonus — Analog Deviation

Analog Deviation takes in two twenty-five-to-thirty-minute examples of wandering, sparse, at times abstract or noisy improv.  Tonus is a three-piece collective bringing together Dirk Serries- Archtop guitar, Benedict Taylor- Viola, and Martina Verhoeven- grand piano.

On the front cover of this CD album, we find a monochrome picture of what looks like the stone archway/ crude flint celling of a crypt, and there most certainly is a feeling of grim tone/ mood here, though equally, we get a feeling of discord/ lo-fi noise sourness too.

The two tracks featured are simply titled “Inbound” and “Outbound”. The first tack slips into awkward audio existence with a pared-back/ lose mix of angular sting fork, guitar neck grate, and inside piano pick ‘n’ knock. By the eight-half-minute mark,  we’ve certainly moved into gloomier realms- as we find bleak key hits, eerie creaks, brooding twangs, and sinister plucks.  Before later on shifting into starker/pared-back mixes of grates, sears, knocks and sudden baying fumbles/bounds/ discordant scrabs.

The second track is the longest of the two at nearly half an hour mark. We open with a decidedly loose/spaced-out mix of key plucks, drags ‘n’ creaks, and brooding key strikes/slides. By the ten-and-a-half-minute mark, we find a sparse/stretched-out flow of string scrab/ bay, crude textual bang ‘n’ knock, and circling creak ‘n’ death bed twang. Before later shifting into crude key descend,  neck scuttle, and dense fiddle ‘n’ grate.

Analog Deviation very much sits at the more sparse, loose, and abstract side of the improv genre. I can certainly appreciate both the player's talents, and what they are trying to do here- but more often than not it felt just a bit too pared-back/ awkward for my tastes.