Kevin Miller and Jukka-Pekka Kervinen: Primordial

For jazz musicians and listeners alike, the Covid years were challenging, significantly limiting possibilities for both studio recordings and live performances. One of the often-used solutions to this dilemma was virtual encounters—either in real-time or, on occasion, asynchronously, as musicians sent files to each other and layered their own contributions accordingly. Although no longer operating under the restrictions of the pandemic, guitarist Kevin Miller and multi-instrumentalist Jukka-Pekka Kervinen have nonetheless chosen the latter approach for Primordial. Despite the artists having never met in person, they join forces formidably on eight improvised tracks which bring their respective techniques in close contact, generating plenty of serendipitous magic despite the less-than-optimal recording format.

Miller has a fair bit of experience in freely-improvised duo formats, having done so most recently with saxophonist Dan Blake on First Light (Creative Sources, 2024). But he has also worked with Kervinen previously, as the two teamed up on 2024's Blind Spot (Plus Timbre). On that recording, Kervinen stuck to acoustic and electric guitar, but on Primordial he digs deeper into his instrumental bag, employing not only guitar but also trumpet, electric bass, and other assorted electronics. The wider diversity of options this affords both musicians is evident throughout the album, preventing things from becoming predictable or repetitive.

Three of the tracks have both musicians squaring off on guitar: "Dark Mantle," the vigorous opener, displays Miller's penchant for precise filigrees, while Kervinen possesses a more visceral, gritty sound. This combination creates an appealing synergy, evoking the kind of elemental forces which are alluded to in the album's title. "Denizen" sees the guitarists lining up even more closely, with an even more conversational feel, although Kervinen's jagged fragments continue to provide the foil for Miller's more finely-wrought expressions; "Broken Hands," the album's closer, mines much of the same territory.

When Kervinen goes to his electronics, the music takes on a decidedly different character. His sound on tracks like "Twisted Vision" and "Unstable Ice" is by turns unnerving and atmospheric, with both electronic effects and extended technique on trumpet on offer, giving Miller a more otherworldly palette to which to respond. Although at times the connections between the two musicians seem more frayed and discontinuous on these tracks, perhaps revealing the limitations of the asynchronous format, there is no denying the imaginative range Kervinen brings to the music, and it does push Miller into less familiar terrain, especially on the former track, where his guitar takes on a more abstract, ethereal character. Most intriguing of all may be the cuts in which Kervinen plays electric bass: on "Can't Escape" and "Icy Pool," he plumbs depths that lend a raw physicality to the music, even when his electronics continue to unsettle and disturb.

Although getting these fine musicians in the same room together would seem the most desirable goal, there is more than enough promise revealed on these absorbing improvisations to justify this admittedly second-best option.