Orchestra Dim Bridges Review

WIRE 12/04 Louise Gray Read much of the press on composer/violinist Eyvind Kang, and you gain the impression that his music is going to be - in that well-known euphemism for the unbearable - challenging. Well, Orchestra Dim Bridges, made with knob-twiddler Tucker Martine, is indeed challenging, but it is also bearable. So bearable that the album's 11 pieces have claim to making up one of the most quietly impressive albums of the year. As members of Bill Frisell's Quartet, and Wayne Horvitz's 4 + 1 Ensemble respectively, both Kang and Martine are established figures on the improv scene, and one challenge that Orchestra presents is how to square often fiery spontaneity with the considered, melodic forms presented here. One way is to look at the structure. The constant is Martine's skewed percussion that seems to fizz with a static energy, rather like a dial being rolled across a radio spectrum. There are sections where he compresses so many whirrings and scufflings that the intensity is tremendous, but mostly, there's a sensitive relation to Kang's main tonal themes played out on strings and guitars. There is often a hymnal feel about Kang's parts here, and the combination with the bristling static of Martine's contribution can have the effect of making you think that the duo have discovered a timewarp linking some pioneer's prarie cottage to a contemporary urban studio. Yet there are also violent discontinuities between melodic ideas. "Elegy Elegie" is a typical case. One riff is followed by a pause, then another theme takes over. It's difficult to make the relationship until you realise that it's the proximity of the material that's asking something. Likewise closing track "Genetic". A warped violin theme of sorts is quickly closed down by a rhythm track, a digital equivilant of engine noise, some strange knockings of the big-end variety. Clearly, this isn't an album to be played while driving. "Dim Bridges" wasn't outside my window, or the creaks of floorboards those of my neighbors.