Immediately each player starts floating strange riddles to the other two. Rennie’s trombone vacillates between morning yawn and mammalian purr; Birchall’s guitar evokes boats knocking against harbour stilts but also the crackle of an incoming radio transmission; Carr’s setup (noise box ukulele, balloons, tubes, bottles) gives rise to a peripheral shiver of static which, upon closer inspection, houses a swirl of high howls and comedic squeaks. Initially these feel like the tentative moves of an improvisatory trio in calibration, yet gradually it becomes clear that evading certainties is the whole point. Even when they rouse into brass snarls and shrieks of indiscernible sources – which is the closest they come to choosing one path over another – the trio retreat again almost immediately, abandoning the onset of solidity, the flattening assuredness of cacophony, to return instead to the richness of liminality and potential. For the entire duration, all doors – those leading to placidity, or to eruption, or to absolute silence – are kept wide open.
-- Jack Chuter
-------------------------------------------
Zippered Time, Winged Dialogue was performed at the Setlist zine launch at Cafe Oto on March 19. The event was curated by Cath Roberts. The concert was the first time playing in trio for Birchall, Rennie and Carr. The title is adapted from some of the text prompts and visual scores in the Setlist zines.
Setlist is a DIY publishing project by Cath Roberts. Artists are invited to create text and images as small provocations / titles / agitations / starting points for improvisation. More:
cathrobots.co.uk