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Nakatani Chen Duo
Tatsuya Nakatani-percussion
Audrey Chen-cello, voice
Susan Alcorn-pedal steel guitar
If it’s dramatic sweep you want this is a more than fine place to start. Chen is one of the leading practitioners of extended vocal techniques, if this album is representative. She can convey wonder, pain, mystery and so much else it’d take a small encyclopedia to describe it all. Nakatani’s a highly sensitive partner and commands a panoply of percussion devices with utmost effectiveness and imagination. Some of the tracks here were recorded live in various Southern cities in 2005. Wish they’d come to Birmingham, but there’s always the future, innit? Meanwhile, the chthonic reigns on this disc. That’s not an unusual thing for a free improv group to pull off, but this duo/trio do it as well as anyone, and of course Alcorn is a wonder-worker.
HH-6
Richard Grooms