Santomieri-Farhadian Duo-Red Blue; Black Copper Editions, 2015

 

The Berlin/Oakland based Santomieri-Farhadian Duo put this CD out about eight years ago, and Disaster Amnesiac has had a copy for a least a couple of those years. That said, I've been digging it more and more of late. Dean and Thea play compositions that are both structured and improvised on Red Blue. The former goes at it on guitar, while the latter gets down on the violin. This music is often characterized by the sound of these two instruments sort of chasing after each other. The guitar might play a skewed rhythm part, which may lead to an harmonic answer from the strings of the violin. And quite abstract harmonies these tend to be. That said, I hear Red Blue as a pretty successful piece of Ambient Music, in that one can use it as foreground deep listening or alternately as background sound for reading or quilting or doing crosswords. The music is never that outwardly jarring, even as Santomieri and Farhadian stretch the timbres of their axes to pretty far out (or perhaps far in?) points. Percussive effects are heard from various implements on the strings of both guitar and violin (alligator clips? chopsticks?), and the resultant buzzes and twangs do not fail to bring a smile to my face. Listening of late, Disaster Amnesiac imagines myself seated within a small listening chamber, bliss-ed out as their immersive sound worlds seeps into my noggin. And oh yeah, it's the only New Music album I've ever heard that contains a direct quote of Satisfaction. Hey, if it worked for Devo............................