Search - Mark Dresser, Frances-Marie Uitti :: Sonomondo

The title says it all.

Toe Surgeon | Los Angeles, CA | 08/03/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Sonomondo--what does it mean? Sound world? Dream world? As it turns out, either translation is appropriate. This disc, quickly becoming one of my favorites in the Cryptogramophone catalog, is all about transporting the listener outside himself, outside his normal ways of approaching instrumental music, to a surreal, beautiful place of dreaming and contemplation and utter beauty.



The sonorities that Mark Dresser and Frances-Marie Uitti pull from their instruments are astounding. Both have mastered a variety of extended techniques, most notably a double bow technique that Uitti uses to coax thick harmonies from her cello. The two manipulate timbres as often as they work with harmony and melody, sometimes sounding like a sullen string quartet, at other times like a creaking wooden ships or a Gagaku orchestra.



The wonderful thing about this album is that, no matter how heady and abstract the improvisations are, they never devolve into intellectual exercises. There is an emotional undertow to all of the performances on Sonomondo. "Grati" even seems to have a narrative arc. The album is dark, even frightening--I can't imagine how an album of low-end improvisations wouldn't be--but it is also beautiful.



And thankfully, it never becomes ambient music. There's always something to listen to, a textural shift here, a plangent melody there. This is music for submarine travel, music for growling, music for memories, music for trowling through your own subconscious. This is an album for consideration, an indispensable addition to the Cryptogramophone roster, quickly becoming one of the most reliable names in creative and improvised music."

Surely a revelation is at hand.

greg taylor | Portland, Oregon United States | 01/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the great joys of listening to creative improvised music is the joy of discovery, e.g., the discovery that some of my favorite classical instruments are undergoing a renaissance in the jazz realms.

In the last two decades, we have seen the emergence of a great number of artists who are masters of the string instruments. The early pioneers in creative improvised music were people like Dr. Michael White and Leroy Jenkins but they were soon followed by the likes of Billy Bang, Mark Feldman, Ig Henneman (for some reason, her stuff is not available on Amazon- as always, write me for suggestions as to where to purchase), Hank Roberts, David Eyges, Ernst Reisjeger, Eyvind Kang, Regina Carter, Charles Burnham, India Cooke and Renato Geremia among many many others.

It could be complained that many of these players do not sound like their classical counterparts but, in many ways, that is the point. They are musical explorers and that includes the basic technique and sound of the instrument. Does Sonny Rollings sound like Eugene Rousseau? Are they not both glorious? So why should Kang or Jenkins sound like Grumiaux or Milstein? Let a thousand tones bloom!

This CD, Sonomondo, is a revelation in sound and technique. Mark Dresser I have know for years from his stint with Anthony Braxton's late 80s quartet. Frances-Marie Uitti was unknown to me and, once again, it just goes to show I don't know diddly. The woman is a revelation: a witch of technique, a musical riddle and a complete delight in these duets.

First, as for her technique, she is known for pioneering a 2 bow style. Yeah, you read that right. Apparently, she plays with two bows at once and is capable of doing double stops with both bows at the same times. Four simultaneous tones or more depending on whether or not she throws in harmonics.

For the most part, what you hear on this CD sounds like two cellos being played at the same time with Dresser either bowing or plucking. Since Dresser himself is a marvel of extended techniques on the bass, you can spend a lot of time who is doing what to what instrument.

But, of course, extended technique is nothing without an aesthetic that makes it seem like a logical need or outgrowth of the music.

And that is where this CD really shines for me. This is gritty, agitated, looming, contemplative, odd and very beautiful music. Melodies quickly come and go in a conversation between equals who bring to the table an enormously wide range of expression. This is the third stream people. This is what modern classical sounds like when it incorporates skilled improvisation and what great improvisers sound like when they understand modern classical innovations.

Finally, read my review in the context of what the other two reviewers say below. Obviously we are all trying to describe music that is ineffable. But we are all inspired to make the effort.

Learn from my mistake- do not live another moment without listening to, learning from and enjoying this CD.

"

The previous reviewer is also correct =)

Pharoah S. Wail | Inner Space | 08/31/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is album is a minor masterpiece of free-improvisation duos by by Frances-Marie Uitti (cello) and Mark Dresser (contrabass). Frances-Marie is the High Priestess of extended cello bowing techniques, and she uses her advanced techniques to serve her imagination, mood, and the music. I greatly prefer this over the types of wanker-musicians who seemingly "design" their music just to show off all the stuff they can do with their fingers.



I don't speak Spanish, so maybe I am way off in even thinking you may think this, but if the title of this album sounds Spanish to you, it isn't... and neither is the music. I think the title is just to be taken as mondo sonority. That may make you think this is some sort of wild and frenetic, cathartically squalling free jazz type of music, but it isn't. Sometimes Frances-Marie and Mark seem to be able to sing (with their instruments) the songs of the humpback whales, and sometimes I think they were watching some sort of twisted old silent film and improvising along with it. Spontaneously Soundtracking it, if you will. Haunted melodies occasionally emerge out of nothingness and disappear back into your dreaming mind.



This is probably not a cd you'll pop in at a party, unless of course the party consists of you and few of your closest friends getting together to lay on the floor, ingest maximum quantities of LSD and go staring into the vastness of yourselves, in which case this would be a perfect party cd. This is a moody, highly interactive set of improvisations that seemingly spread your consciousness out to (at times) the point of sleep, and I mean that in a good way. I swear this disc can trigger delta waves.



Frances-Marie and Mark can feel free to do another album any time, I'll be sure to pick that one up also... they can even bring Zeena Parkins along on electric harp. I won't mind one bit!



(11/14/07 edit: I still dig this album but now I have to say it's nowhere close to being as otherworldly as The Victoriaville Tape, which has to be some sort of benchmark)

"