By Nick Metzger
I remember a long while back reading a review for a blistering solo free
jazz album on Keith Fullerton Whitman’s now defunct Mimaroglu Web Store
(thanks for everything Keith!) and he noted that solo albums like that
really hit him between the eyes during the freezing winter months and I’ve
thought of that every winter since. I also tend to listen to a lot of solo
music during the post-holiday cold as I’m generally not as distracted with
outdoor life and am able to listen a little more closely. That said, this
year I’ve been loving this new solo trombone release from Philadelphia’s
Dan Blacksberg who’s trio has been covered a couple of times
here
on the blog. He was in the Hasidic doom metal band Deveykus with fellow
Philadelphian, guitarist
Nick Millevoi
, releasing their only album Pillar Without
Mercy on Tzadik back in 2013. Blacksberg is described on his website
as “a living master of klezmer trombone” and in addition to being a
dedicated proponent, teacher, and organizer of the music he also released
the first album of klezmer to feature the trombone as the lead instrument
on Radiant
Others, also with Millevoi. The album currently under consideration
here is not a klezmer album in the slightest. The Psychic Body/Sound
System is a powerful improvised statement that blends wild soundscapes and
drone with gnarled extended technique and commanding free trombone flights.
The poetic fictionalizations of the titles are the perfect signage along
the path, one that is craggy and steep but also imbued with some remarkable
vistas.
The album starts off with “We Walk Through the Petrified Gates” – a brief,
low drone that feels like an initiation – setting the tone. Next is “Tale
of a Survival” a heady dialogue of solo free trombone where the staccato
phrasing starts to slur and is interrupted by mumbled exclamations across
the track, occasionally breaking down into violent and wet blasts of sound.
On “Crags of Resounding Whispers” the thwacking churn of the horn is
reminiscent of the chug of a huge pumping machine. The album’s arguable
centerpiece (for me) is “Observing the endless screamer” , this time on a
prepared trombone. No idea what the preparations are but it would seem that
Blacksberg opened some sort of portal. Endearing in much the same way that
Merzbow is, it might require a bit of effort for some. Blacksberg does a
considerable job of bending and directing these noises to make the track a
standout on the album, it’s not just pure intensity but also arrangement,
variety, and nuance. “Feeding the great babbler” is a brief segue in low
frequencies – a lot lower than the previous track – it’s fast-paced and
bulbous and pretty easy on the ears (mindful sequencing) with a lot to
offer the careful listener. “Softgrid Lament” is built of growling,
multiphonic passages recorded really dryly, so much so that the gurgling
inner world of his trombone is central to the piece. It seats gnarly,
aggressive exclamations at the same table with slow glissandos that sound
like cartoon airplanes falling out of the sky.
The direct effect of being submerged is discernible on “Liquified tides of
thought”, which conversely has the reverb cranked to 11. The stuttering
passages ripple like water over rocks, closing in breathy resolution. On
“Infinitely shattering crystal wishes” Blacksberg plays his horn into a
prepared piano. Heavy tongue thwacks and high pitched whistles disturb the
pressure field, causing the strings to answer, the track becoming more
intense and violent as it progresses. “Gliding over the dimensional glacier”
is another brief but continuous drone piece that puts the gauze back in our
ears, again the sequencing is right on as this lull resolves into the
brightness of the next track “Tale of refusing futility”. On this one
Blacksberg plays with a raspy, cutting tone that blasts through in a haze of
atomized spittle. Then Blacksberg puts down the magic wand momentarily and
delivers a passage that’s aggressive and direct. The album closes with the
“We exhale the gate closed”, another brief and murky drone that works as a
bookend with the opening track. This is a good one, there’s a lot of
variety in both technique and style and it’s a lot of fun to listen to.
It’s got a quality of its own and doesn’t sound like a solo trombone album
in the sense you might expect. The detail and density keep the listening
active and as a result it’s 40 minutes pass all too quickly.