Floating Frames

Ear-Rational is to be congratulated for issuing this document of the 1992 tour of percussionist Takashi Kazamaki and guitarist Kalle Laar. With their guests in tow, helping out on various selections -- William Parker's contributions are felt the most here -- the duo reaches pinnacles of free improv communication unrealized on any of its previous offerings. Dynamic is the key to the music made by Kazamaki and Laar -- finding a space to inhabit while raising the tension bar one frame at a time, and then, at its peak, broadening it to contain as much of the sound universe as they can manufacture. This concert demonstrates ably to what lengths they will go to in order to achieve such a goal: employing the colors contributed by other musicians, momentarily slackening the reins and driving a piece back down in order to resurrect it a bit later, then taking it higher on the sonic plane, utilizing as many different kinds of music as are at one's disposal at a given moment, and -- last but not least -- dropping out of the mix altogether in order to avoid stasis. Section names are irrelevant on a recording like this; they serve only to mark time on a CD. What matters is how gradually and purposefully these two artists execute improvisation and how masterfully they carry it from an obscure starting point into a territory filled with images, colors, sights, and impressions. This is truly an amazing document of free improv at its most creative.