| Evan Shaw and Jean Martin have no piano in this music, but they've given it the allusive title, Piano Music. It's clear these musicians want to make art.
"Moose Clock", for example, is a layer of steady bells ... a recorded male voice reading out loud the names of Chinese food dishes ... and lastly, the dialogic alto of Shaw. The audible message here is that you can make interesting music out of anything.
In contrast, "Sweeter than a plastic bag" has an orchestral scope. As large suspended chords pulse from Martin's electronically processed 'jazz orchestra', a lean alto cries, and the simplified ride and snare work of Martin effectively defines the musical space, a grey urban space that occasionally grows turbulent with the fervor of Shaw's alto.
But whether their sounds are struck, recorded, processed, or improvised, these two creative musicians offer us the sounds of life, and in their witty and oblique titles like "Warren brings his lunch", "A strong glue is not necessary", and "Me softly with his kill", they further demonstrate they've found the place where sound and words meet.
And all of this is accomplished without being precious and arty.
by David Fujino — November 2008
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The tracks
1. Sweeter than a plastic bag, 4:03
2. Warren brings his lunch, 1:43
3. A strong glue is not necessary, 7:01
4. Me softly with his kill, 6:46
5. Sandwiches and a dip in the pool, 3:18
6. Wedged under the front of $0.99, 4:15
7. Rattlebag Jimmy, 14:44
8. Moose Clock, 2:40
9. Which way to Domino's?, 7:27
10. Philosophy of the world / Wiggins, 2:40
Recorded at The Farm in Toronto, 2007.
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