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Jim Denley & Kim Myhr: "Systems Realignment"

  Tobias

With Systems Realignment, Australian reedman Jim Denley and Norwegian guitarist Kim Myhr make one of the more intriguing albums of electroacoustic improvisation in recent memory. Percussive reed pops and struck guitar notes twinkle antiphonally between the speakers and build into richly layered and hypnotic textures. Flurries of flutter-tongued flute become long, almost toneless breaths of air over intricate polyrhythms of muted guitar strings.

Sounding simultaneously organic and alien, this is an album about deconstruction—separating tiny textural “motives” and rebuilding them through improvisation and electronic manipulation. The result is an album of warm and unique textures at times reminiscent of rich vinyl hiss, gurgling water, didgeridoos, channels of air, and struck metal. The duo brilliantly moves between instances of rhythmic regularity and seemingly random “beats” that gradually coalesce into figures recollective of Aboriginal drum patterns before dissolving back into irregularity. Surprisingly, the music is rarely chaotic, but instead soothing and even meditative in nature.

Moments of solo guitar—particularly in the aptly titled “Engraved And Suspended—offer respite from the textural abstraction, breaking the staccato flutters and fizzles of the music with moments of tranquility. “The Singing Neanderthal” alternates sedate sustained electronics with swells of saxophone multiphonics while quiet crackling sounds move across the sonic space.

The wide sonic pallet is all the more impressive given that the sounds are generated by a seemingly limited array of instruments: alto saxophone, flute, acoustic guitar, and electronics. And while there are a few claustrophobic moments on Systems Realignment, the musicians’ sense of space infuses the compositions with a delicate instability. This, coupled with a strong sense of compositional curve and bold experimentation, makes for an album that’s as musical as it is texturally intriguing.

By Hannis Brown

Homepage: Jim Denley
Homepage: Kim Myhr
Homepage: And/Oar Records