MAW is the trio of Frank Meadows on bass, Jessica Ackerley on electric guitar, and Eli Wallace on prepared piano and synth. They quietly released their debut last year, a recording of sparse and low-key textual improv. Here, they continue in that general direction with four live recordings aptly titled as such.
The first pair was recorded at Mise-en-Place, Brooklyn, in October 2021. They begin with bass and synth drones with crackling percussion spiking up sporadically from the background. The second piece is denser, as Ackerley provides a disjointed theme with heavy distortion while either Meadows or Wallace hold up the low end and sound short-drum-like motifs. Eventually, Ackerley heads off into utterly free improv, with note twisting and extended techniques ala Derek Bailey. Meadows maintains a drone in the quieter passages.
The next pair is from a performance at Opus 40 in West Saugerties at around the same time frame. Meadows’ playing is breathy, and again percussion is a surprisingly large component. In fact, if not for the liner notes indicating otherwise, it would be natural to assume that the group employs a full-time drummer. Ackerley’s contributions are subtle at first but morph into twisted chording.
Live Recordings explores the edges of spontaneous and open-ended modern creative music. The music is very free, with more emphasis on opening sound envelopes than melody or rhythm. Very nicely done.
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