Tetuzi Akiyama & Anla Courtis - Naranja Songs cd

Tetuzi Akiyama & Anla Courtis - Naranja Songs cd

(The Wire) After a sparse and spiky beginning, this meeting of improvising guitarists Tetuzi Akiyama and Anla/Alan Courtis settles into what’s almost a groove on “Mind Mochileros”, the track that opens an affable sounding collaboration. With Courtis presumably providing the pulse – octaves and broken chords on the lower strings – Akiyama’s tautly pulled high notes are surrounded by a heady flow that, solo, his austere playing seems to diametrically oppose. On “The Citrico Vibe” the two players ripple in and out of one another, fast picked patterns only occasionally disrupted by pauses or clashes like small rocks in a stream. As on his recent collaboration with Tom Carter, Akiyama adds a welcome edge to his partner’s softer, more fluid figures. The remaining two tracks – “Springs And Strings” and “Los Frets Nomades”, as their titles suggest, see both guitarists delving into the more abstract possibilities of their acoustic guitars, wringing out bowed drones and indefinable percussive sounds. What holds the album together – aside from the quiet, detailed clarity of the recording – is both guitarists’ attention to resonance and sustain, a preoccupation that drives their improvisation and results in sounds both caustic and lovely. - Frances Morgan

(Monk Mink Pink Punk) These two veteran guitarists, one from numerous collaborations and the other from his long-time association with Reynols, take up acoustic guitars for a set of four excursions into string noises, scrapy rhythms, bowed notes and at times pretty chords and arpeggios. Comparisons with the acoustic guitar parts of Gastr del Sol are not out of place; there is a strand of minimalism in terms of repetition that weaves through the playing, such as the two chords that repeat and seem to slow in “Los Frets Nomades.” Parts of this are exquisite from two musicians who are known for louder forays into sound. - Josh Ronsen