Mawja - Live One

Michael T. Bullock: contrabass, feedback
Mazen Kerbaj: trumpet
Vic Rawlings: cello, surface electronics

“Mary Staubitz emailed me asking, 'do you and Vic want to play with this guy from Lebanon?' Mary was booking a series of noise shows at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain, MA, and had been contacted, apparently out of the blue, by 'this trumpet player from Beirut.' She wanted to help him out but wasn`t sure what to do, since none of us in Boston really knew anything about him. Vic and I have had a duo established since 2000, so I knew at least I wouldn`t be totally out to sea with this new guy. I agreed and so did Vic: we would meet Mazen for the first time at the gig. We did just that. I walked into the Midway the night of the gig and saw a tall Middle Eastern man standing in the middle. The Midway is a very rowdy, noisy joint even when the music is not playing, so conversation was limited to pleasantries, and 30 minutes later the three of us were on “stage” (actually the middle of the floor in front of the tiny stage, the only place we could fit two large string instruments, two amps, and Mazen`s table crowded with trumpet preparations). Then something happened - music came tumbling out. Immediately, and for the entire set, we were in that state of mind that most groups work for months or years to achieve; the music played itself. Harsh, mild, tense, limber, awkward in the best ways, and above all, effortless. After it was over we knew we had to play again, soon, and often. We set about booking a tour for the next time Mazen could come to the US. This disc, along with “Studio One” on Al Maslakh, is the products of that intensely creative week.” Michael Bullock - Troy, June 2007

2007 LIVE ONE (Chloë) rapidshare/mediafire

Mawja - Studio One

Michael T. Bullock: contrabass, feedback
Mazen Kerbaj: trumpet
Vic Rawlings: cello, surface electronics

CD LINER NOTES

ONE STRIKE ISN'T ENOUGH

This album struck me like a big wave, a wave that makes you lose your consciousness and equilibrium for several minutes, leaving you wondering what just happened to you during this elusive lapse of time. Probably this is exactly the purpose of this trio, where as their music draws rust from your very skin, suburban rust, from those big suburbs where the individual melts, and all individuality is melted by the heavy burden that eats all. The sound ate the self, ate the collective, ate time, and invaded space.
I wasn’t expecting such a radical treatment of sound. The music here goes out of time, depriving it of its value despite the usual ties that link time and music as an art form. What we hear is rather a strong binding with space, using it as a compositional tool. This music does not move, but it wanders like blocks of colours or shapes in the empty.
The reunion of Bullock, Rawlings and Kerbaj for this recording leaves no possibilities for any future; it is a meeting of the here and now, like the musical result that is released with this recording. The Present time is simultaneously constructed and deconstructed, making the “now quality” predominant on the atmosphere of this record. The unified sound of the trio fills the air like a short-wave radio signal, carrying its usual load of small marginal details; a sound that resembles music or walks by it without remorse, not stopping at any station along the way.
Three musicians, both friends and enemies, yet above all partners of this same game, where there are no rules for improvising; one erases the other, without regret, for the sake of unity in sound.

Raed Yassin
Beirut, March 2007

2005 STUDIO ONE (Al Maslakh) rapidshare/mediafire