Mary Halvorson famously uses a Line 6 DL4 delay modeller in combination with an expression foot pedal to create her trademark off-kilter pitch-shifts. These sounds sometimes appear like they’ve evolved via a ring modulator or by extreme use of a guitar tremolo arm.
She also uses other effects, including octave pedal, which produce single notes transformed harmonically into unison or octave notes, rather like the double stringing on a mandolin. The net effect of the use of these pedals is both gripping and discombobulating.
Michael Formanek’s resonant bass sets the tone of I’m A Senator! with Halvorson’s strident chord shapes authoritatively punctuating the tune. Survival Fetish is imbued with a hauntingly lyrical guitar-led melody that sears into the memory. On Fidgety, Tomas Fujiwara’s scimitar-like cymbal swipes characterise the piece. On Future Reruns And Nostalgia, Fujiwara’s vibraphone in tandem with Formanek’s arco bass add an ethereal quality to the mix. Fujiwara’s vibes are also heard on the angular Shit Changes and the hypnotic Swirling Lives.
The playful head of Formanek’s Capsicum Annuum with pizzicato bass taking the lead, gradually transmutes into tight staccato ensemble playing before returning to the original theme. The sections of fevered tightness within Brutality And Beauty show this trio doesn’t rely purely on improvisation but also utilises scored constructs as complex and labyrinthine as anything Ornette Coleman or Anthony Braxton could have written.
Whilst this virtuosic trio operates as a cohesive, democratic collective with all three members contributing compositions in almost equal measure, it is undoubtedly Halvorson who is the point of difference. Like Sonny Sharrock, Derek Bailey and – whisper it – Jimi Hendrix before her, Halvorson has modified the language of the electric guitar and extended its boundaries almost beyond recognition. No other guitarist sounds even remotely like her.
Discography
I’m A Senator!; Song For Mr. Humphries; Survival Fetish; Shit Changes; Fidgety; Multicolored Midnight; Future Reruns And Nostalgia; Capsicum Annuum; Swirling Lives; Should Be Cool; Brutality And Beauty (62.39)
Mary Halvorson (elg); Michael Formanek (b, elec); Tomas Fujiwara (vib, d). Brooklyn, NY, 2-3 September 2021.
Cuneiform Records Rune 485
