Keith Rowe and Christian Fennesz — Live at the LU (2004, Erstwhile)
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Recorded live in Nantes in 2002, this release features two of the 20th century guitar’s most distinct voices, Keith Rowe and Christian Fennesz. This recording feels remote and austere, but never meandering. Worlds away from the likes of Venice or Endless Summer and in some ways, more discreet (or even tenuous) than Rowe’s work within AMM or with other collaborators. Indeed, the listener feels as if they are stumbling amidst the ruins of a modern city, which is lifeless save for the odd, fragmentary sounds which unexpectedly resound, only to sink back into the depths of silence moments later. The assorted radio parings underscore this feeling, providing an unsettling sense of abandonment, as if one hopes the airwaves will provide some glimmer of hope, yet do little to assuage the misplaced subject who stumbles amidst and through the decay. Readers should not be dismayed or put off by the bleak picture painted, however. Instead, this collaboration has a distinct sense of curiousness (and even playfulness), which is quite often present in improvised music(s), yet goes overlooked or is displaced by some imagined gravity. Perhaps such readings are informed by large swathes of silence or non-music(s), which demand more from the listener, thus evoking solemnity. Whatever the case, Rowe and Fennesz riff well off of one another and this release, like much of Erstwhile’s catalogue, is well worth exploring.
Marginal Brevity 