You could say the “golden age” of electronic improvised music is over—maybe point conservatively to the closing of Günter Müller’s mighty For 4 Ears imprint circa 2010, or liberally to Keith Rowe’s retirement from guitar in 2021, for an end bracket of a creative epoch. But even though the conventions have long been established and the enthusiasm has quieted, an inspired matchup will always prove why this stuff is so exhilarating to listen to. Seasoned stalwarts Rhodri Davies (harp, electronics) and Alfredo Costa Monteiro (objects, devices) have somehow never played together until now, at least not that I can find. Both have lent their talents to named ensembles that are behind some of my favorite music in this sphere—No Spaghetti Edition and Cremaster, respectively—and have built formidable bodies of work on mainstay labels Another Timbre, Sofa, Moving Furniture, etc. The closest they’ve come to a collaboration prior to Widdershins was the second CD by the superb trio Muta, on which Davies played and Monteiro contributed a poem for the layout, and yet this galvanic live recording sounds more like a fifth meeting than a first. Recorded back in May in the small Juan Naranjo gallery in Barcelona, the 42-minute set evokes an expansive world that extends far beyond the modest white-walled room. It’s slow, pensive, shaped around sighs and hum and clatter. The room recording gives Davies’ harp a dark, almost somber aura, and Monteiro’s minimal drones get some color in the open air. The duo’s approach echoes both familiar and novel territory. The tensile dramas, the austerity with the barest hint of warmth remind me of such classic sessions as Beins and Neumann’s Lidingö; the organic pace and blurred ambient drifts in the second half are a fresh and fruitful new direction. Several magical moments have kept me coming back: the pure harmony that rings clear near the nine-minute mark, the surprise string pluck in a wash of coarse resonance.
Noise Not Music 