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Ballrogg: Insomnia
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The shift to original material means more than just a walk away from familiar jazz fare like Dolphy's "Out to Lunch" and Coleman's "Sex Spy," where the duo's distinctly unorthodox approach to sound and interaction rendered them barely recognizable; Insomnia, instead, possesses more in common with contemporary classicism and oblique folklorism. The title track features an expanded lineupincluding laptop artist Lars Myrvoll, and violinists Kari Rønnekleiv and Ole-Henrik Moe, the latter heard on Ciaccona / 3 Persephone Perceptions (Rune Grammofon, 2008)combining with Arntzen's bowed harmonics and Holm's expanded clarinet technique to create a collective improvisation that owes more to microtonal composer György Ligeti and improviser Joe Maneri than jazz hegemony. The piece may be relatively shortat just under six minutes, nearly the longest of the setbut demonstrates a surprising sense of development, as time is twisted and pulled to make it feel longer than it is, but in a good way. As dramatic as these five improvisers becomeand the music possesses great but understated power, as the subtlest inflection creates surprising dynamic towards the middle of the pieceit's clearly about a collective push-and-pull, where the subtlest movement from one results, at times, in a near paradigm shift from the others.
But the majority of Insomnia remains a duo affair, with the exception of Holm's "Woody Creek," which, again featuring the violinists, sounds how Philip Glass might, were he to work more in smaller contexts as opposed to grander scales. Pulses, repeating motifs and a surprisingly cogent form emerge, even as Holm proves his saxophone mettle through some unusual tonguing as he leads from a brief a capella to full accompaniment. Acutely controlled embouchure and multiphonics are also part of his sonic arsenal, yet their effect is often extremely subtle, going by nearly unnoticed during his brief solo segment before the reiteration of composition's structure. The elegiac "Sleepwalker," also featuring guitarist Myrvoll, provides a rare, grounded moment where defined changes and folksy strumming approach---but never quite makesome kind of normal.
What defines Ballrogg is control: control over tone; control over texture; control over dynamics. But even more definitive of this angular, obsidian duo is its ability to blur the line between what is written and what is not. Further distancing itself from the jazz canon on Insomnia, Ballrogg asserts itself as an improvising duo with a keen ear for spare, cinematic landscapes.
Track Listing
N.R.E.M.; Woody Creek; Sleepwalker; Georgetown Suites; Monkeytown; Sort of Patterns in a Chromatic Field; Insomnia; Kampenhaug.
Personnel
Klaus Ellerhusen Holm: alto saxophone, b-clarinet, feedback amplifications; Roger Arntzen: double-bass; Lars Myrvoll: guitar (3), laptop (3, 7); Ole-Henrik Moe: violin (2, 7); Kari Rønnekleiv: violin (2, 7).
Album information
Title: Insomnia | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Bolage