More excitement is apparent on Green Light (MultiKulti MPTO 12 multikulti.com),
where Poles, clarinetists Wacław Zimpel, 32, and percussionist Hubert Zemler
35, play on equal terms with well-known American new music improvisers,
clarinetist Evan Ziporyn and guitarist Gyan Riley. Beginning as if the tracks
present a sonic slide show of someone’s recent travels, tambura, frame drum and
bell-like echoes intermingle with Western chamber music tropes including
delicate guitar plinks and reed tone layering. The CD reaches an early climax
with the instant composition Chemical Wood, as Ziporyn pecks out spangled bent
notes through the harsh continuum created by Zimpel blowing both melody and
drone from an alghoza or Punjabi woodwind. Since the idea of Green Light is
cooperative not solipsistic, the American clarinetist joins in congruent
improvisation with his Polish counterpart on tunes like Melismantra. Backed by
hard strokes from Riley’s guitar, reed tones are tensely intermingled, with
Ziporyn’s clear tones puffing out lines in unison with Zimpel’s rugged
altissimo gulps. Even more cross-culturally cooperative is Gupta Gamini, the
Zimpel-composed final track. Processional, with echoes of Polish as well as
subcontinent folk music, the narrative is kept in motion by tremolo layering
from the two horns. Using electric guitar, Riley’s corrosive licks reverberate
like torn electrical wires adding a barbed interface. After a pause, the theme
finally relaxes into a coda that is a dual showpiece for the reeds’ spectacular
upward flutter tonguing.
