There is much fascinating sound to be had in the elemental combination of double bass, pedal steel, and contrabass clarinet. That is the takeaway from Blame Tuning, a recording by the New Haven-based duo Tongue Depressor (double bassist Zach Rowden and pedal steel and lap steel player Henry Birdsey) plus reedist John McCowen. The ground on which the album’s two long, fully improvised tracks stand is the kind of dense yet variable drone environment in which Rowden and Birdsey specialize. The two have been creating drone-based music together since 2017, and their honed ability to elicit microtonal and timbral nuances from essentially static material shows to good effect here. McCowen, who has collaborated frequently with Rowden, is a natural fit; the low, grainy buzz of his contrabass clarinet is an almost tangible presence defining the music’s bottom stratum. Rowden is the binding force here, whether joining McCowen at the low end of the spectrum when raspily bowing the open lowest string, or reaching up to echo Birdsey’s shimmering notes with harmonics. A very rich, and richly recorded, essay in sound.
Daniel Barbiero
Avant Music News 