mysterium: Press/Interviews

“The saxophonist carries gamely on, sounding some gorgeous bugle calls and singsong melodies, while drums and guitar play Space Invader ping-pong in the background. When Eigner switches to clarinet there are moments in which the whole group leaves the ground.”

Local reeds & trumpet hero, Daniel Carter, needs no introduction as he is the busiest of all downtown improvisers, playing with just about everybody at some point, no matter what genre they're dealing with. Morgan Craft plays stunt guitar with Burnt Sugar, as well as a duo called Rough Americana with DJ Mutamassik. Eric Eigner plays extended drumset & clarinet, released this cd, yet I hadn't heard of him before this. Well recorded and balanced, this is high-end improv that moves quickly through focused, constantly changing dialogue. Daniel begins with some cautious flute before switching to relaxed muted trumpet as Morgan spins short connected lines of warped guitar and sampled (tape?) weirdness. Eric moves effortlessly through different styles, fractured jazz, funky snippets and free eruptions. Morgan also dips into the heavy Hendrix bag at times, as well as inserting a wide variety of mutant guitar soundscapes. He is a perfect foil for Daniel Carter who also is in constant motion between horns and styles. There are moments when things quiet down with some somber, floating tenor sax and delicate guitar & fragile percussion, which balance the more intense eruptions that never last too long. There is a sublime, organic flow and thread of close listening going on here as each of these long pieces evolve through different sections. Perhaps this swell trio will play here at DMG in the near future and brighten our day or night.

Wind multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter may be a fixture on the downtown New York scene, but he is little known outside of that circle. And that’s a shame because he’s as deserving of the moniker “improvising musician” as many of his more well known contemporaries. While he has an ability to expand the language of his instruments through extended techniques, he maintains a surprisingly focused orientation, looking for melodies in the ether. His latest collaboration, Mysterium, places him in the position of being the most well-known of the ensemble, which means you almost certainly haven’t heard of the others. And that’s also a shame.

Morgan Craft plays what is termed as “Stunt Guitar,” which really means an amalgam of effects and techniques coupled with real time samples and an almost anything goes approach that allows him to navigate everything from funky bass lines to metallic abandon and all points in between. Percussionist/clarinetist Eric Eigner uses everything from traditional percussion instruments to found objects, chains and just about anything else he can get his hands on that clangs, clatters and rattles. Together with Carter the result, five extended improvisations, could seem pointless and meandering but most often doesn’t. Instead, each member of the trio has ears big enough to follow leads, and enough personal vision to create direction.

With Carter’s saxophones, trumpet and flute coupled with Craft’s diverse guitar-ish sounds and Eigner’s multiplicity of banging, chiming and crashing instruments, there is plenty of aural diversity to create pieces that develop both texturally and thematically. From somber landscapes to all-out funk grooves, the ensemble creates pieces that are defined by a spirit of adventure and no particular boundaries. “City Bumpkin Cadenza” begins as a dark tone poem until Eigner kicks in with a skewed funk groove over which Craft layers guitar that can only be described as Derek Bailey meets James Blood Ulmer. “Who’s Got the Battering Ram?” starts with the closest this group comes to swinging, Carter blowing over a loose drum groove; but Craft takes it for a left turn by contributing jarring chords that would sound more at home in a garage band.

Still, for all the strange cross-pollination of styles—often going on at the same time—there is a strange sense of unity. Carter, Craft and Eigner don’t fashion music that can be easily categorized, and it certainly can be an affront on the senses. Still, the group has a clear chemistry that elevates these improvisations above the usual “let’s go and see what happens” fare. Mysterium is a surprisingly likable album from a group that would be even more engaging in person.

An active sound experience, Mysterium grabs hold and forces the listener to hang on for a wild multi-genre ride. Using jazz, drum and bass, blues, rock, funk and some down right nasty noise, extended drumset artist Eric Eigner has collaborated with multi instrumentalist Daniel Carter and stunt guitarist Morgan Craft to produce a transgenerational improvisational engagement.

Old head meets new, as Craft, who can make his guitar squeal like the downtown 7th Ave express pulling into Times Square and Carter, who has been a fixture on the NYC improv scene for decades, provide the ideal pair to explore Eigner’s sound panoramas. Carter excels on trumpet, sax and flute, at times changing off within a single piece. “Some People Need Bibs” begins as a trumpet/drums free-formish romp. Some kick-ass guitar then hurtles things forward against a pumping bass rhythm. Things then get very funky until Carter switches to sax for some “real” jazz. “Charlatans Draped in Blue” is a tonal improvisational excursion that includes bells, springs and screeches to build a percussive landscape where sax meets screech in sirenic wail. A sax/feedback summit slowly builds to a climax as things honk off into the night.

Morgan Craft is the answer to “Who’s got the battering-ram?” as his guitar explosions complement the percussive pace set up by Eigner. A stratospheric sax joins over a non-stop funky rhythm until things calm down for a Trane-meets-Hendrix rendezvous. The African feel that Carter’s flute and Craft’s folkish twanging bass line add to “City Bumpkin Cadenza” and the very bluesy muted trumpet/guitar trip “Harmoniums at Midnight” make for a very well-rounded jam.

The very opening of Mysterium reveals its deeply quirky personality: Carter plays very pastoral flute while Craft manipulates his guitar with what sounds like a drill and other devices (stunt guitar indeed!) before the trio launch into a note-heavy energy space. It’s all over the bleedin place- echoplex drenched guitar and trumpet, scattershot shrieking, plucky minimalism, even some breakbeats. Carter is almost doggedly himself throughout, drawing on his rich experience and using his multiple instruments to tell stories: and if he is insistent on sticking to a Free Jazz expressionist mode (whether on tenor, alto, flute, or trumpet), he always plays appropriately and sets up many intense moments of contrast with the frenzied (and occasionally rock-based) stylings of his colleagues. But the consistently changing mood is set by Crafts eruptive personality (not just his preparations of the guitar, but his use of electronics and radio frequencies) and Eigners pulse tracks. At times they shred like a speed metal band, while elsewhere they stomp out some Free Funk worthy of Last Exit (particularly on Some People Need Bibs); and thankfully, their more open, abstract moments (Charlatans Draped in Blue, for example, or the ominous City Bumpkin Cadenza) are equally absorbing. These guys have really listened a lot, and have incorporated some very diverse elements into a wild, rambling voice that is sure to grab you. It’s not always clear that this trio has a coherent identity; but if anything, it’s their very restlessness; their ceaseless wandering that is their calling card. It’s pretty invigorating stuff.