Album: Conjure
Artist: Jason Kao Hwang and Karl Berger
Label: True Sound Recordings
Website: https://jasonkaohwang.bandcamp.com/album/conjure
Conjure, the latest CD from violinist-viola player Jason Kao Hwang and pianist-vibraphonist Karl Berger is indeed a collection of musical conjurations. Some parts are melodic but most are abstract with a cinematic scope as though they were made for big screen psychological thrillers. The twisted workings of the strings and reverberating vibraphone will sonically seem to represent the subconscious mind, tormented and nonlinear. The compositions project images in the listener's head, brandishing a series of moments of tension and intervals of irregular chord patterns. Experimental and entirely improvised, the compositions have a noir cast that is haunting and simultaneously inviting.
The twisting weave and dissonance of the strings is trellised by the pitter patter of the vibraphone's notes ruminating along "Beyond Reach," making for a radiant and inventive piece. The duo's communication is spontaneous and their symbiosis is apparent, complementing each other's parts while sculpting phrases that are unsymmetrical, capricious, serrated, craggy, and jagged, drawing out mutable figments in a constant state of flux.
Hwang's soaring strings in "Prophecy" are pin-pricked by Berger's pelting keys as though puncturing through mammoth walls at obtuse angles. The clashing tones of the two don't engage in a battle but rather tug on each other, working as a catalyst to press the other to unveil more. The eerie echoes of the vibraphone are augmented by the doubly eerie raptures of the strings strewn across "Silhouettes" like a series of ghostly silhouettes. In contrast, Hwang's taut strings are wedged along "Vanishing Roots," making for a trail of uneven mounds plotted along the chord progressions.
Though Hwang and Berger play free and independent of one another, their compositions are cohesive as their communication travels into one another. Alone, each artist projects a tiny voice but together, their interplay illuminates explosive conjurations. Their labyrinth of notes is mind-twisting and thought-provoking as each coaxes the other to search deeper into themselves, bringing to the surface abstract strokes that are erratic and random, bonded into a united transmission.
Musicians:
Jason Kao Hwang - violinist and viola
Karl Berger - piano and vibraphone
Artist: Jason Kao Hwang and Karl Berger
Label: True Sound Recordings
Website: https://jasonkaohwang.bandcamp.com/album/conjure
Conjure, the latest CD from violinist-viola player Jason Kao Hwang and pianist-vibraphonist Karl Berger is indeed a collection of musical conjurations. Some parts are melodic but most are abstract with a cinematic scope as though they were made for big screen psychological thrillers. The twisted workings of the strings and reverberating vibraphone will sonically seem to represent the subconscious mind, tormented and nonlinear. The compositions project images in the listener's head, brandishing a series of moments of tension and intervals of irregular chord patterns. Experimental and entirely improvised, the compositions have a noir cast that is haunting and simultaneously inviting.
Hwang's soaring strings in "Prophecy" are pin-pricked by Berger's pelting keys as though puncturing through mammoth walls at obtuse angles. The clashing tones of the two don't engage in a battle but rather tug on each other, working as a catalyst to press the other to unveil more. The eerie echoes of the vibraphone are augmented by the doubly eerie raptures of the strings strewn across "Silhouettes" like a series of ghostly silhouettes. In contrast, Hwang's taut strings are wedged along "Vanishing Roots," making for a trail of uneven mounds plotted along the chord progressions.
Though Hwang and Berger play free and independent of one another, their compositions are cohesive as their communication travels into one another. Alone, each artist projects a tiny voice but together, their interplay illuminates explosive conjurations. Their labyrinth of notes is mind-twisting and thought-provoking as each coaxes the other to search deeper into themselves, bringing to the surface abstract strokes that are erratic and random, bonded into a united transmission.
Musicians:
Jason Kao Hwang - violinist and viola
Karl Berger - piano and vibraphone
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