SLAMCD298 Irene Kepl & Mark Holub – Taschendrache

On ‘Taschendrache’ the New Jersey born drummer and composer Mark Holub teams up with acclaimed Austrian violinist Irene Kepl for an improvised recording.

Holub formed the ground-breaking quintet Led Bib in 2004. They released their debut album on SLAM Productions in 2005 and have gone onto release six more albums and have received numerous awards and accolades.

With their unusual instrumentation Holub and Kepl move through frenetic free improv, to wistful melodies, to pummelling grooves. The duo was formed shortly after Holub’s arrival in Vienna in 2012 and from the start it was a special musical meeting of two sympathetic voices.

Of this recording Mark writes: “Playing in duo is always an exciting prospect, a chance to have a proper musical dialogue with just one person, but also it allows you to fully have the space to explore your own sound-world because of the openness in sound that a duo can bring. With this particular duo…it also has the excitement that derives from it being an instrumental combo that is rarely heard which helps to enable us to approach it afresh each time, without preconceptions of what the music could or should sound like. With the actual recording process I think we were able to capture the various approaches of the duo, from freewheeling grooves, to abstract noise to beautiful soundscapes.”

Irene Kepl: violin and electronics
Mark Holub: drums

“This is a gritty, earthy program for two resourceful and intense improvisers…subtle and intense in equal measure…I like the fractured lyricism in Kepl’s playing on “Finsteres,” the understated funk on “Beetles,” the lonely landscape on “Hols,” and the moaning feedback and rough incisions on the closer. All pieces are focused, not overlong, and they’ve got a refreshing sense of form and ending. Recommended.” – Jason Bivins, Cadence

“On pieces like the title track, Holub’s unable to resist flirting with a loose and subtle groove but, for the most part, he takes a much more abstract approach, ranging from hyperactive fidgeting on rims and cymbals to low, rumbling tom-thunder with a spare, ceremonial feel. Kepl responds with gestures that seem more intent on establishing mood than making clear melodic statements: from knife-edge, minimal harmonics with the bow barely touching the strings, through lurching scratches and tics and rising up to rough stridulations. It’s convincing and compelling, with a genuine sense of dialogue throughout.” – Daniel Spicer, Jazzwise

“Each piece is well-balanced and cleanly recorded…In a blindfold test, I might have guessed that this was Billy Bang and Dennis Charles, at least this is what it sounds like at times. There is a mostly calm centre to these inspired improvisations, an almost folky quality to the sound of the violin. On “Arachnid”, Ms. Kelp plays a series of bent notes, see-sawing back and forth, like an ocean of quicksand sounding a raft. The effect is hypnotic as if we are on the edge of a precipice, balancing precariously. Although Ms. Kepl plays electronics, I didn’t hear much of this before getting the last part pieces on this disc. It is a thoroughly inspired offering nonetheless.” – Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Chris Janka at Scottenfeldgasse, Vienna
Recorded on October 15th, 2013

SLAM CATALOGUE