TRIANGULATION – Whirligigs

Leo

Triangulation, from Switzerland, is the quartet of vocalist (down to the sub-contrabass range) Bruno Amstad, guitarist Christy Doran, pianist John Wolf Brennan and percussionist (also employing voice) Patrice Héral. Besides their main instruments, these gentlemen use and abuse loops, upon which the structure of the near-entirety of the album is erected; Brennan adds electronic keyboards, melodica, accordion and a harmonium. Whirligigs is a concoction fusing snippets from dozens of diverse genres, all of them rhythmically muscular: the music is more or less always characterized by a percussive drive of some sorts. There’s something for just anyone willing to forget about difficult harmonies and improvisation for a night: drum ‘n’ bass, dub, beats obtained through syllabic spurts and various kinds of muttering, acoustic guitars reminiscent of John McLaughlin (the Shakti era) and, infrequently, of Ralph Towner, hard jazz-rock (“Embracing The Tiger”), utter mayhem (“Final Cut/Almost There”). And then, gurgling and groaning vocalizations – often heavily misshapen by the processing practice – hinting to Eastern and African cultures. Amidst the jumble, refined piano shards appear every once in a while to remind that is a Leo CD. A veritable potpourri that is both surprising, in that finding such a kind of release in Mr.Feigin’s catalogue is not a probable event, and for the most part entertaining: despite the dearth of authentic originality – we couldn’t really deem these 75 minutes a world-shattering innovation – one listens to this miniature electro-Casbah willingly, confident in the quality of the musicians, occasionally daydreaming (“Silent Knights”), ready to dance a bit if so desired – and to forgive the few dead spots.