What Happens In A Year: Ceremonie / Musique

New York-based reedist (bass clarinet, baritone saxophone) Josh Sinton says: "Every day when I wake up, I try to make some stuff." An admirable goal. One of the things he made, in cahoots with his band What Happens In A Year, is a recording called ceremonie / musique. The set has been described, accurately, as "daringly spacious." The instrumentation is sparse: the leader's deep reeds colluding with Todd Neufeld's electric guitar and Giacomo Merega's electric bass guitar, crafting surreal atmospheres that are thoughtful, unfolding at an unhurried pace, evoking images of crepuscular landscapes—dark hills looming behind skeletal, leafless trees.

These are improvised, let's-see-what-happens sounds, full of mystery and shifty meanings—three way conversations by practiced interactive musical orators who all seem as if they are out to prove absolutely nothing, on a search of discovery for a unique and enticing mixture of sound.

Todd Neueld's guitar is a key to the success. A piano wouldn't have worked. The electric sustain, the guitar's blurry glow lays down the ghostly, luminescent foundation for the sometimes mellifluous, sometimes warbling reed work, while Merega's bass keeps the sound tethered to the cold Earth, floating just above the low-to-the ground mist.

If the music were a soundtrack, the images would be filmed at dusk, in November. The storyline would involve disillusionment, a disturbing desolation, alienation from the potential comforts of society.

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