A nice review in the latest Vital Weekly newsletter:
Hi, a lengthy positive review of the Al Margolis: Ordet CD in the latest Vital Weekly:
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AL MARGOLIS - ORDET (CD by Artsy Records)
As I play this new CD by Al Margolis, I am thinking about his musical project If, Bwana and how that differs from his work under his own name. Maybe I am ill-informed, but I do not know if If, Bwana still exists. I think the difference between both projects is that If, Bwana works with the complexity of many sounds, ordered and composed in some way, whereas under Al Margolis, it is all more improvised music. There is not one instrument Margolis plays, which makes his work less easy to define. He plays a series of instruments and objects on the five pieces; the cover details their use per track. There is a toy drum, trombone mouthpiece, metal, contact microphone, BBQ skewer, five Arp 2600s, acoustic guitar, viola, objects and a Korg Microprocessor. The two electronic instruments are used solo in a track for each of these; another track uses solely two toy drums.
Margolis mentions that the album is "solo collaborations – or perhaps, collaborations with oneself. These assemblages/constructions are reworked/reimagined/revisited/recycled pieces - transformed into something new". One exception is 'Livermorium', which is a process piece. This is the piece for five Arp 2600s and is quite different from the others in how it sounds. Bleeping sounds of five machines connected, chasing each other as it were, going round and round. It's a strange kind of minimalism, but it works well. Minimalism is the keyword here, also in the other pieces (in fact, effectively also in the work Margolis as If, Bwana), all sounding much more improvised, even the one for the Korg. Here's how I imagine how Margolis works (and a warning: I might be entirely off the mark): using a multi tracker (analogue or digital), Margolis recorded his improvisations without noticing too much of what is on the other tracks, and the mixing is where he puts order into the chaos (I don't know if 'Ordet' means 'order' or some such), or as in 'Copernicium' and 'Nihonium' deliberately leaving the chaos in. The other tracks have more organisation, and the total is a highly varied release, a balancing act between chaos and order. I enjoyed all the pieces, but my favourite is 'Oganesson', the one for two toy drums. The sound is very much at the low end, using some contraption to scrape the skin of the toy drum, creating a beautiful low-end mysterious sound, and something sounding also improvised. This is the kind of improvisation I enjoy!
