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Tomaset

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Michael Fischer

Label: Extraplatte Musikproduktions
Released: 2002
Duration: 00:58:29
Views: 93

Tracks

Tomaset #1, Tomaset #2, Tomaset #3, Tomaset #4, Tomaset 5#, Tomaset #6

Personnel

Album Description

reviewed in The Wire Adventures in Modern Music 222, Aug. 2002, London
by John Cratchley
Guitarist Gary Smith first came to prominence in the mid-70s with The Acme Quartet performing improvised fusion. In the 80s, however, he took an extended recording sabbatical that lasted almost a decade. Since then, he has produced a series of exeptional albums. Add this one to the list. The period away from the recording scene gave him time to nurture and solidity an absolutely unique signature on his stereo electric guitar. He is perfectly at home in either solo or group settings. His partner on this recording, tenor and soprano saxophonist Michael Fischer, has equally impressive credentials, and together they produce music of power and delicacy.
Recorded live and spontaneously direct to minidisc on a recent European tour, Tomaset captures both the intimacy and immediacy of improvised music at its best. Smith is most recognisable for his undulating pendulum swings along the length of th fretboard, which he enhances with unequivocal directness and openness of tone. He can switch from light. fingertip touches to fluid note runs or heavy, concrete blocks of sound within an instant. Fischer matches this arsenal with an equal diversity and accuracy. His soprano tone ranges from a reedy screech to a breathy dulcet sigh, and he is expressive in either short, staccato bursts or complex, sinewy forays. He can also match Smith for power, as his tenor playing demonstrates. Both players have a penchant for the percussive, with Fischer using the 'slap key' technique to produce a range of air-primed pops (not unlike the technique employed by Pharoah Sanders), and Smith tapping the overamplified guitar strings, especially in the bass register, to great effect. The guitarist also uses controlled feedback to produce banshee wails of spine-tingling invective, or gentle, murmuring hums to coincide with Fischers vocal interjections.
Here, both players wield their improvisational power with discrimination. Tone and texture never jar, even though they are frequently juxtaposed, and it is always possible to differentiate every nuance. Recorded in what Fischer describes as a dining room with minimal technical enhancement, the CD captures the ebb and flow of their combined approach to perfection.

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