Sean Conly / Michael Attias: Think Shadow (2012)

Eyal Hareuveni

Contributor since 2004

Eyal Hareuveni is an Israeli journalist who lives in Jerusalem.

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Published: November 4, 2012

Sean Conly / Michael Attias: Think Shadow

This is an intimate meeting between old friends. Bassist Sean Conlyand Michäel Attias who collaborated before on Conly's Re: Action (Clean Feed, 2012) and on Attias' recent Spun Tree (Clean Feed, 2012). But this recording features both musicians who work now as the Think Shadow duo. Here, they improvise on the spot, creating melody, rhythm, and harmony, searching for a mutual language.

The fifteen duets are subdued and restrained. Conly and Attias leave enough space for each other and enough room for silence. Both dance around each other's articulations with playful agility, and expand the other's sonic palette yet focus on a delicate balance, free of any virtuosic interplay. They share a basic approach. The sounds take shape and evolve naturally and intuitively, within harmonic structure, but they do not attach themselves to any one sound. As soon as a shared musical idea reaches its ripe peak, they move to the next improvisation.

Improvisations such as Attias' meditative baritone sax solo on "Baghdad Bargain," using dense circular breathing, may hint to his cosmopolitan background as one who experienced migrations spanning Morocco, Israel, France, Minneapolis and New York. Other improvisations, such as "Midnight in the Desert Nothing but Camel Rhythms to Keep Me Awake," unfold in a rich cinematic plot. "Even Owls Dream" and "Shaftway" are adventurously experimental in their focus on pure sonic research.

It is a beautiful document of a mature, improvisational process.

Track Listing: Timeslip; Scylla and Charybdis; Baghdad Bargain; Rabid in Boneyard Blue; Think Shadow; Midnight in the Desert Nothing but Camel Rhythms to Keep Me Awake; Tumble; swarm; Gart; Slow Mink; Even Owls Dream; Poe's Pendulum; Shaftway; Sargasso; Respectable Tawdry.

Personnel: Sean Conly: double bass; Michaël Attias: alto and baritone saxophones.

Record Label: OutNow Recordings