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Susan Alcorn / Leila Bordreuil / Ingrid Laubrock: Bird Meets Wire
ByAs a consequence, their first release as a collective on Bird Meets Wire chafes at genre boundaries. The mix of abstract and if not figurative, then at least slightly less abstract territories, provides one of the key appeals of the set. It is manifest straight from the off on "Area 41," where spacey mysterious indeterminacy, which would make a super X-files soundtrack, briefly parts for an interlude of chiming pedal steel and a slowly ascending tenor progression, cushioned by a cello sustain. Such textural interweaving which subordinates instrumental prowess to group goals holds sway elsewhere too on cuts like "Is Is Not" and "The Fourth World."
At other times the constituent elements come into sharper focus. The twittering soprano saxophone which hovers over rippling pedal steel and a deep cello hum that suggests the sound emanating from high voltage power lines introduces the title track, and maybe even gives rise to its name. After opening with Laubrock's jazz adjacent tenor saxophone, "Topology" moves from atmospherics to a seething boil, and then back again. It's Alcorn who seems most likely to call on convention, invoking the Americana which permeates her instrument's history by introducing the familiar Chilean air in mournful fashion on "Caňones (El Pueblo Unido)," and again imparting a sombre tinge to the final "Indigo Blue (Wayfarin' Stranger)."
Track Listing
Area 41; Bird Meets Wire; Is Is Not; Topology; Cañones (El Pueblo Unido); The Fourth World; Indigo Blue (Wayfarin’ Stranger).
Personnel
Album information
Title: Bird Meets Wire | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: Relative Pitch Records
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About Susan Alcorn
Instrument: Guitar, steel
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