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PT15

Graham Stephenson - DEFIANTLY NOT  CDr

1. Just Cause (17:08) mp3
2. Had Had (8:04)
3. Percy Jaguars (23:16) mp3

Graham Stephenson: trumpet, microphone, audacity

Artwork by Graham Stephenson
Mastered by Nick Hoffman
100 copies
Released October 2011

OUT OF PRINT



REVIEWS:

Just Outside (Brian Olewnick)
October 2011

As with Unami, but for different reasons, I'm kinda glad I heard Stephenson in several contexts at AMPLIFY:stones before I heard his solo disc (trumpet, microphone and, um, audacity). I generally found him the most rewarding member of the ensembles in which he appeared, largely for the concentrated quality he brought and the remarkable amount of variation within an (only) apparently narrow range.

So when the first track begins with eight or so minutes of seriously painful, shenai-like shrieking, a strangulated trumpet if ever there was one, in the back of my mind there's the assurance that this will somehow fit into a context. And it sort of does, if only as one color (if you will) among several, no greater weight attached to the stridency than to the quiet later on. Relative quiet, that is, as the aforementioned microphone seems to come into play, sliding about brassy surfaces. Or the trumpet sliding around the mic whilst emitting gases. Odd digital beeps, too. You begin to get a real sense of the visceral in this first piece; it's exhausting and invigorating. A lot of ground is covered but with not the slightest sense of meandering.

The second track pits a fairly pure, though reedy sounding, high tone against background scrabbling, all embraced by an audible room hum and the occasional voice. Very casual, in a way, but subtly moving, the central tone difficult to not hear as a keen of some kind, abraded by harsher, scouring wind sounds. Good stuff. The final cut begins softly enough, all breath and muted rumblings but midway through, while the ind still howls (Stephenson-generated?) and car horns honk outside, it sounds like the trumpet hasn't forgotten its earlier abuse at the, erm, hands of the microphone and engages it in battle. Not sure who won, but burbling quasi-serenity returns, several minutes of percussive sounds, a quick onrush of traffic, then silence.

Fine job, excellent recording.

The Watchful Ear (Richard Pinnell)
November 2011

Oh good, back to vocal-less abstract sounds as music then…

To be precise another new release on the Chicago-based Pilgrim talk label, this time a solo for trumpet by Graham Stephenson. To be more precise, Stephenson’s instrumentation is brilliantly listed as ‘Trumpet, Microphone, Audacity’ with the last of those three perhaps referring to the open source editing software, but the double meaning really made me smile. The CD then, is another solo trumpet workout that explores extended techniques and plenty of ‘non-trumpet’ sounds, part of a now quite long tradition, but that is hardly Stephenson’s fault, and what he comes up with here is a nice addition to the canon rather than just another catalogue of interesting sounds.

The CD is named Defiantly Not, which may or may not refer to an Oasis album but I like to imagine that it does anyway because it makes me laugh. As seems to so often be the case with the improvisation of the younger generations in the USA, this set of three tracks has a nasty, jagged edge to it, a roughness and raw feel that gives the music a definite energy. The opening Just Cause is the most brutal here, opening with, and continuing throughout its seventeen minutes with a series of viciously tense, piercing shrieks. While nothing is given away, and the rest of the album sits much more quietly, this opening passage cries out with a really earthy angst, the kind of sound that really gets under your skin, like the cry of a baby, the scream of a woman, the anguish of some small animal, such is the intensity and somehow very affecting nature of this sound. The track sees the wail come and go in on/off bursts throughout the first piece. Between them sits background room tones and the shuffling of items close to the microphone, the like of which become a feature throughout the disc.

The second track, titled Had Had (another feature of young American improvisers right now is the oblique titling of music) in complete contrast to the opening piece exudes a real sense of calmness and a laid-back, ‘I’ll make music when I’m good and ready’ quality. A mostly flat, continuous tone exists through most of the piece, occasionally warbling up and down through nearby pitches but primarily staying quite clean and pure in quality. Alongside this the sound of the room can be heard clearly. Things knock and tap close to the mic, there is that cloudy sense of shuffling about, and voices are there every now again, perhaps coming from a TV. As the piece progresses the tone gets occasionally thicker and more persistent, and a breathy hiss attaches itself here and there, but overall the feeling is quite calm throughout the eight minute track.

The closing Percy Jaguars (see what I mean?) lasts twenty-three minutes and seems to be a nice, serene sounding recording of somewhere wet, with passing traffic for much of the time, but soon a clanking, bustling series of knocks and taps appears that sounds to me like a live microphone rattled about inside the trumpet. As the piece continues these sounds remain, the calm, openness of the external sounds and this claustrophobic battering sound in the foreground. Here and there the latter best quite urgent and loud, a frantic feel to activity, but these passages repeatedly subside back into quieter spaces. Right at the close of the album the outside sounds suddenly rush towards the microphone before being cut dead. Defiantly Not is a fascinating work then that oddly manages to sound brutally human and tortured in places, and completely unintentional, as if the work of machines and nature rather than a trumpeter, elsewhere. Â It is an engaging listen mainly because of how it continually seems to avoid the usual egocentric musicianship of solo instrumental albums and often feels thoroughly unmusical, more an incidental capture of something that happened rather than the deliberate presentation of work, though clearly, this is not the case. Not exactly soothing bedtime listening then, but an interesting and thoughtful album that I recommend you hear.


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