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Masashi Harada Trio: Seismic Plant
ByDistinguishing tracks based on titles becomes something of peripheral pursuit and the idea that these pieces are the result of Harada’s compositional pen (he is credited as composer on the disc sleeve) seems somewhat absurdist. Harada calls the process ‘activation’ in his accompanying notes, but though he may be cueing the action from behind his kit the interplay that results definitely sounds collectively improvised. “Pacham” is a perfect encapsulation of the aesthetic. Marital press rolls, scraped cymbals, hummingbird bass drones, Harada’s groaning voice, and rash of silences- all feed into the unfolding panorama. Rainey sounds alternately like a perforated tin harmonica and broken slide whistle on “Elastic sympathy” spitting fractionary notes threaded with grunted vocalizations. Harada’s traps boil and ferment beneath spiced the odd interjection from Bullock. The deceptively titled “Scream” starts almost imperceptibly and rarely rises above a whisper. “Final Blast” hits with a roundhouse punch of trip hammer percussion, craggy arco bass and Gordian saxophone articulations closing the sonic book with a suitably ambiguous run-on sentence.
All told, the disc ambles forward for over an hour, but the music remains free of artifice or repetition. Harada’s drumming in concert with the equally stubborn styles of his partners’, makes for a style of trio interplay that is at once obstinate and all encompassing. The sounds are steeped in the element of surprise, the central ingredient in any sort of improvisation and as such any need for safe reference points is quickly subsumed by the novelty of the sounds themselves.
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Track Listing
Seismic plant/ Some blowing/ Name detune/ Pacham/ Memory materialised/ Elastic sympathy/ Implosion vortex/ Limit of error/ Body elicited/ Scream/ Final blast.
Personnel
Masashi Harada- percussion, voice; Bhob Rainey- reeds; Mike Bullock- bass. Recorded: August 23 & 24, 2000, Rossie, NY.
Album information
Title: Seismic Plant | Year Released: 2001 | Record Label: CIMP Records