Wade Matthews / Abdul Moimême: Permeance

Two masters of experimental music, Wade Matthews, the French-born, Madrid-based, electro-acoustic improviser, and Abdul Moimême, the Portuguese experimental guitarist & composer, have been frequent collaborators for a decade. The duo recorded one previous album, Lisbon -10 Sound Portraits (Creative Sources, 2017) in the pre-pandemic era. Permeance sees the pair reunited in a live recording from Lisbon's Bota Club in late 2022. The music is largely improvised, derived from only the barest of pre-conceived ideas.

Permeance consists of three engrossing works featuring Moimême's altered, and prepared, electric guitars and Matthews' processed and manipulated electronics. In the midst of field recordings, musically adapted objects, and strange sounds, the pair coexist in both opposition and unity. The pieces collectively play out like a science fiction soundtrack, eerie and mysterious, and strangely compelling. Deep silences coexist with electronic pops, squelches, scrapes, and sonar pings. At times, the duo hesitates on a precipice; in other sections, they flow directly into some unseen vortex. Often, the line between the two musicians is blurred as they simultaneously speak in peripheral languages.

Pioneering electronic artists, Matthews and Moimême have pushed the boundaries of the genre through algorithmic composition and live performance. Their work on Permeance is characterized by a deep exploration of sound, using complex and unconventional methods to create a rich, immersive listening experience. What Moimême presents from his horizontal guitars is always ear-opening and enigmatic. But where his instrument is intertwined in the anonymous sound mechanizations of Matthews, familiar reference points are all but absent. Permeance is gently defiant and, for the exploratory listener, gratifying.