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Peter Evans / Sam Pluta: Two Live Sets

By Mark Corroto
March 2, 2019
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The most extraordinary music ever presented has elicited the same time-honored "what the f@#k was that?" response. From Elvis (both Presley and Costello) to Grandmaster Flash, Igor Stravinsky, and

Charlie Parker

saxophone, alto
1920 - 1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Charlie Parker, the "shock of the new'" (to borrow a phrase from art critic Robert Hughes) adjusts listeners' criteria for judging a composition or performance, and often times their approach to the listening experience.? ?

We can add laptop artist/composer

Sam Pluta

electronics

" data-original-title="" title="">Sam Pluta and trumpeter

Peter Evans

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Peter Evans to the above list. They've been doing it for more than a decade now. The pair collaborate in the quartet Rocket Science (with

Evan Parker

saxophone, soprano
b.1944

" data-original-title="" title="">Evan Parker and

Craig Taborn

piano
b.1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Craig Taborn), the Peter Evans Quintet, and in this free improvised duo setting. While Evans has garnered critical acclaim for multiple solo trumpet recordings, it is the duo of these artists that undoubtedly pushes the envelope in extremis.

This latest release follows Event Horizon (Carrier, 2014) and Sum And Difference (Carrier, 2011). The music captures two live performances, one on the CD-release from Belgium, and a second (available as a download) from Atlanta. The shock—but let's call it the awe of this duo—is the disintegration of individual sounds. With Pluta's realtime electronics, it is often impossible to determine where Evan's trumpet ends and the laptop improvising begins. Of course, Evans has recorded several solo sessions that extend sound experiments beyond that of

Bill Dixon

trumpet
1925 - 2010

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Dixon,

Wadada Leo Smith

trumpet
b.1941

" data-original-title="" title="">Wadada Leo Smith, and

Rob Mazurek

trumpet
b.1965

" data-original-title="" title="">Rob Mazurek. His innovations, coupled with Pluta's engineered improvisations (not an oxymoron) on laptop, create a sound beyond jazz, new musics, and noise by rethinking melody, harmony, rhythm, and meter. It is part sci-fi and part field recording, if by field recording we mean the insides of Evans' brain and the circuit boards of the computer. The music discovers a sound as ancient as that made by early humans. That is if they had just parked their spaceships.

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Track Listing

De Singer, part 1; De Singer, part 2.

Personnel

Peter Evans / Sam Pluta

Sam Pluta: live electronics; Peter Evans: trumpet.

Album information

Title: Two Live Sets | Year Released: 2019 | Record Label: Carrier Records

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