While there’s no denying Rodger Stella’s cosmic creativity, his techniques of manipulation and malpractice can, when spotlit in a solo setting, lack any real grit or danger. But Frederikke Hoffmeier can plumb those depths convincingly – even in her current bold and minimalist mindset – and adds that necessary spoil to Rodger’s galaxial gale on this collaborative tour cassette now re-printed by Mutter Wild for us homebodies.
The first side slowly sifts Puce Mary’s earthen grind into Rodger’s fligty electronics, the two voices drifting as they languidly caress. This opening is the two feeling each other out, testing compatibility and enjoying the slow entanglement of their sounds; any tension is precipitated rather than acted upon.
Those harder urges were saved for the second side, a grimy central distortion castigated with off-kilter repetitions while an ominous droning thud presses the piece and Rodger’s electronics squirm to find free space. Like a repeatedly picked scab the textural repetitions start to tear at the dominant timbre, unleashing an ever muckier sap of absorbing grainy distortion.
This unassuming collaboration plays on its participant’s strengths with an often casual ease, its class coming from intuition and talent more than over-wrought or overthought intentions.
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