Is this already esotericism? And if so, is that a bad thing? The fact that the latest album by Chicago bassist Joshua Abrams was conceived as part of his bandmate Lisa Alvarado’s installation Pulse Meridian Foliation does not necessarily make that question any easier to answer. It does, however, help explain why the result sounds markedly different from Abrams’s other records with his Natural Information Society. The pulse usually characteristic of his music is absent here, as is his main instrument, the bass – or rather the gimbri. Instead, Abrams limits himself to electronic sounds that provide a backdrop for two violas and Lisa Alvarado’s harmonium.
The music recalls surf under the lightest of swells. Certain sounds recur in cyclical fashion: the sustained double-stops of the violas, the tremulous vibration of the harmonium, a deep thud that might come from a drum or might equally be digitally produced. What makes the whole thing recognisably Abrams again is its ritualistic character, into which one can sink without effort. And one is free to let the odd association play out: are those elongated viola tones a homage to the composer Tony Conrad? It would not seem an unreasonable thought.
