Vital Weekly Review: Dust

This is the their second collaborative work, after 'Quake' (see Vital Weekly 195). I am, I must admit, a great fan of Dimuzio's work (more to review next week probably) and never much of Cutler's work, but that might still be just me and my ignorance. Like 'Quake' this new work was captured in concert, two of them. One in front of a live audience and one inside the studio, and that one of course has overdubs. Not that it's really to say the difference between the two. Both artists employ micro tonalism, each in their own way. It results in densely layered music, in which it's hard to recognize the sampling of Dimuzio versus the drumming of Cutler. Percussive sounds float by, but wether they are the result of drumming or processing it's hard to tell. The whole improvisational aspect is both very much present, but at the same time it's also so far away, just because of the denseness of the recordings. That makes this into quite a captivating recording. New elements seem to come from nothing and they disappear as suddenly as they arrived on the scene. Overall the first piece, which is titled 'Requiem' (6 parts) is more dark and has certainly those edges that belong to a requiem. The other piece, which was expanded with studio techniques has no real theme, and is more complex, as well as obscured sound elements. A very fine disc that leaves lots and lots to hear and will grow everytime hearing. —Frans de Waard