‘Topography’ on Vital Weekly

JON MUELLER & JASON KAHN - TOPOGRAPHY (CD by Xeric/Crouton)
It went a little past by me, but Jon Mueller is now fully signed up to Table Of The Elements, so they already released in the last six months eight titles that include his work. Either solo, or with his band Collections Of Colonies Of Bees, or such as here in collaboration with the like wise prolific Jason Kahn. Together they have been on the road about a year ago in the North-east area of America. This CD is a documentation of that tour, spanning five tracks. Of course you do realize that both are drummer boys, but with an added extra. Kahn plays percussion and analogue synthesizer and Mueller plays percussion and cassettes. He places this cassette players below the skin of his percussion and through the rumble of the cassette the skin starts vibrating, making a rattling sound. Over the years Kahn’s playing has turned more and more subtle and delicate and is much drone related these days. His synthesizer hums away, while I could never figure out what he does with his percussion, to be honest. These five pieces which flow nicely into eachother, thus perhaps presenting a concert as it could have been, displays very well what they. I believe this is a microphone recording, rather than a line recording, which adds a certain nice quality to the atmosphere. Drone like, and hardly percussive, but with great depth. Minimal in approach, maximum in the way it sounds like it. Great stuff, but I hardly expected anything different. (FdW)