Christy Doran & Izumi Kimura: Glacial Voyage

One was born in Ireland in the aftermath of WWII and grew up in Switzerland on a diet of Jimi Hendrix; the other was born in Japan a generation later and trained in classical music. But neither time nor musical upbringing can drive a wedge between veteran guitarist Christy Doran and pianist Izumi Kimura. Though each has worked in a wide range of different settings over the years—Doran in jazz-rock pioneers OM, Kimura with John Cage's music, for example—what draws them inexorably together is their musical open-mindedness, tireless curiosity and the risk-and-reward allure of improvisation. Their debut as a duo plunges them into the deep waters of free collaboration, where textures and moods trump virtuosity.

At the epicenter of proceedings is Doran's pedal board, the guitarist unleashing a smorgasbord of distorted screeches, sci-fi squeals and industrial drone. It is hard to think of another album in his six-decade, 50-album career where his feet have done almost as much talking as his hands. Kimura toggles between the sort of damped-string percussion of Butterfly Effect (Codama Records, 2025), light minimalist touches and more assertive rhythmic impetus. Melody, when it surfaces, is fleeting and fractured—the emphasis residing instead in ambiance and emotive currency.

Several of the titles reference locations in County Mayo, on the west coast of Ireland where Dornan spent time in 2024. The sotto voce rhythmic churn and eerie undertow of "Inishkea Islands," the grungy abstraction of "Belmullet"—like an experimental outtake from a poteen-fueled Tom Waits-Marc Ribot encounter—and the drones and fractious riffing of "Downpatrick Head" seem to summon old ghosts—perhaps the islands' pre-Christian pagans, the famine victims and the drowned souls of bygone days.

The duo evokes leviathan communication on "Whale Tea Party," an affecting psychedelic journey into a sub-world of weightless ambiance and edgy dissonances—a nod, perhaps, to nature's wonder and the dangers that threaten it. Mechanical precision and coiled tensions underpin "Blacksod Lighthouse," a small outpost of outsized historical importance; in June 1944, lighthouse keeper Maureen Sweeney's weather report persuaded Eisenhower to postpone the D-Day landings—the largest seaborne invasion in history—at Normandy by 24 hours.

The curious blend of Doran's industrial-cum-otherworldly noises with Kimura's acoustic stirrings at the keyboard's poles—from off-kilter music-box tinkling to rumbling gravity—is heard to striking effect on "Light Frames." But even when pared back to minimal forms of expression, as on the quasi meditative "Moon Pull," there is a constant tension at play in their dialogues. "Horizon's Invitation" brings resolution of a sort—its fidgety rustlings and sci-fi abstraction fading into the void like a shooting star.

Concentration and patience will reward those listeners who seek the unfamiliar with all its attendant surprises—both sonically and emotively. Glacial Voyage delivers on both scores. A special word for Brian Morton, whose liner notes—much like Doran's and Kimura's bold immersive journey—speak to time, place and memory in personal terms both grounded and poetic.

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