Friday, February 3, 2012

Paul Kikuchi, Portable Sanctuary Volume One


Percussionist Paul Kikuchi has been making some very interesting ambient-avant-cosmic improvisatory music of late and I have reviewed many of them across the blogs. There's a new one, Portable Sanctuary, Volume 1 (Present Sounds 1102) and it continues the development of his style. It's Paul on drums, percussion and electronics; the ageless trombone master Stuart Dempster; Bill Horist on guitar; Jesse Olsen Bay on percussion and guitar; and Alex Vittum on percussion and electronics.

This is music with and IN space. There are sparsely accompanied solos, more dense passages of electronics-enhanced sound sculptures, bell-gong percussion atmospherics, new music excursions of ambient tone-noise and group improvisatory essays.

Something like this works well if there is a group dedication to realizing a particular atmosphere and a keen attention to characteristic sound production at any particular point in an aural space. All that is very much in play on Portable Sanctuary, Volume 1. Bring on Volume Two! Recommended.

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