“They are always different, they are always the same.” Famous words by legendary DJ John Peel about his favourite band, The Fall. Words that can also be applied to many improvisers. It is often said that out of all instruments, the human voice is the easiest to identify as belonging to a particular person, but this is equally true for other instruments, of course. Sometimes it’s easy. Some musicians have a sound that is so unique, so recognisable, that even those with only a passing interest in the music would be able to identify them instantly. The distinctive roar of Brötzmann is one such example.
Not many musicians sound that recognisable, but an experienced listener will easily distinguish one musician from another, as not only sound varies (in the case of saxophone players, for instance, their use of vibrato is often a giveaway), but also approaches to improvising, use of extended techniques, preference for a certain register or intonation, etc. A strong improviser combines the best of both worlds and expresses a personal ‘core identity’ while staying on the lookout for advancement. New contexts and challenges provoke new ideas and reactions.
Colin Webster and Dirk Serries are skilled improvisers you can’t pin down on a single outlet. They previously recorded one duo album (Gargoyles, 2018), but also make up two thirds of the Kodian Trio, half of a Quartet with Andrew Lisle and John Dikeman, appeared in several versions of the Tonus ensemble and revived Serries’ Fear Falls Burning-project, etc. They remain restless seekers, never content with merely repeating themselves, not even within the same project. Compare Gargoyles to Light Industry. They are totally different.
Whereas the earlier album contained 17 improvised pieces, all of them with the brevity of punk songs, this new one takes more time to develop and explore ideas. They have abandoned the restlessness, frenzy and even occasional ugliness of before in favour of interaction that looks completely different on paper and yet is still their own. Even when he only uses acoustic guitar, Serries’ style – marked by an unconventional technique that can partly be attributed to him being a self-taught musician – cannot be mistaken for anyone else’s. The same is true for Webster’s particular combination of technical command, a wide range of manipulations and a specific sound on the alto.
The jumpy movements over the strings, fierce plucking and disjointed patterns merge with the plopping, skittish and bendy lines, and alternations of swift runs and manic repetition. They are combined in varying ways, each time with different results and temperaments. Sometimes knotty and rough, keeping tension at the foreground. At other times more subdued or forthcoming, looking for common ground. It is an abstract, mental and intuitive thing, but… there is also the material side. Perhaps that is why the album and song titles refer to physical things, mostly metal objects that can be used as tools, or are parts of a larger whole.
Give fifteen identical instruments to fifteen musicians, and they will all sound different. We attribute that to the musicians’ techniques and treatments of the instrument, but you could also argue that to some degree, the potential was already there, right in front of them, waiting to be uncovered. It’s when inner urge, skill and curiosity collide that things come to life, new and familiar at the same time.
Guy Peters 2019
