"Dew Point," An Impressive DVD from Mikrokolektyw

There are DVDs that feature a literal view of artists in performance; there are DVDs that give you the music tracks and bring only art-visual video onto your screen; and there are those that do both. The new DVD from Polish duo Mikrokolektyw, Dew Point (Delmark DVD 1597) does both. And it does both in a very pleasing way.

There are two versions of the program. One shows the duo on stage playing a live set. Behind them are visual stills and montage video of (what seems to be) a trip on Chicago's El train from the beginning of the line to the heart of downtown. The second program features the music with just the montage video as image, full-screen.

Mikrokolektyw is Kuba Suchar on some very hip drums and Artur Majewski on a plaintive. soulful, post-Milesian trumpet. Both also activate electronics, some of which seem to be MIDI-controlled accompaniment to what is going on live; other devices alter the signals of the live music in various ways.

I've reviewed their last CD on these pages (see the Index). (I Liked it.) The DVD showcases well their rather unique combination of space rock, avant soundscaping and free improvising. It's seemingly a group destined to get increasingly favorable attention as people become accustomed to the way they go about things. They have embarked on an important foray into improvisation and live electronics. May they continue exploring for many more years.

The music, the imagery and the great sound combine to give you a full evening's worth of ART with all caps. Kudos to Mikrokolektyw and kudos to DVD director Raymond Salvatore Harmon.

Jon Hassell, Reporting from the Moon

Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes On the Street (ECM). OK that's the title of Jon Hassell's fairly recent CD. I'll be honest. I really haven't caught his other albums so I have nothing to compare this to. I know he calls his music "Fourth World." That's cool but at least on this recording he sounds like a cosmic space cadet of the soundscape variety mixed with some very mellow, spacey Milesian almost-Funk.

I glanced at a review somebody else did, which I don't usually do, but I was looking for the cover image to drop in on this posting, and that person knew every album and what Hassell has been all about. I don't. In that sense I am playing Frozen Caveman Lawyer here.

It sounds like an ECM album, which will hardly surprise, since that's what it is. But there are more orchestral electronics in parts, so it is in no way generic ECM. Hassell's trumpet is plaintive and like a pilgrim searching, 'tho I do not know for what. Does any one of us know? He often uses a device that doubles his sound and he does it with subtlety, 'tho again if he didn't I am not the sort that would object. And there are all sorts of things going on behind him.

This is brown study stuff, music to send you off drifting and dreaming about things that I would hope are pleasant or profound, or both. Now I want to hear his earlier work. You who already know all about his music wont need me to say any more. I must say I liked this one. Perhaps I'll check in with a later posting after I've heard some of his other recordings.