MoonJune 2015
Painting with sound, Dušan Jevtović and Xavi Reija come sparse but united in their double vision.
Random Abstract
Having played together for years, drummer Reija and guitarist Jevtović worked out a telepathic connection, an integral element of any jazz-inclined combo, and took their mutual understanding to the point where the trio setup of 2014’s "Resolution" seemed like a big band. Out went the bass as a link between melody and rhythm, and the unchained duo found a loose limb to go out on now. The relaxed feel of these nine cuts might come from the Spanish sky the musicians share when they look up because their blues isn’t ferocious now – the translucent, flamenco-flavored “Place With A View” is purely romantic – and a third of the album flows by before a jagged riff ripples “New Pop” to undermine its infectious dance, light but losing its grace along the way.
The route starts with the gentle ebb of “Secrets” whose intimacy seeps in on a whiff of percussion filling the solar wind of the strings’ strum to help it gradually gain a twang of tectonic sway and form a menacing figure only to fade into delicacy once again. Recorded live with only few riffs looped but without editing, here’s a freeform fall in search of tuneful treasures in the heavy, slow pull of “Deep Ocean,” while “Decaying Sky” reaches for the dark playfulness of a fusion hue. The title track, too stentorian and insistent to live up to its meaning, rages in a fit of a distorted new-age with a moving bottom end, yet malice is absent from this work, albeit “Workplace” gets a grind into its unsteady routine with an industrial edge. But the poisonous, acidic, deliberately raw crawl of “No Hope” hides an orchestral promise which electronic effects draw on, so abstractness is deceptive here, where random approach warrants a surprise.
****4/5
