(Avant-garde, Free Improvisation) Mary Halvorson & Weasel Walter - Opulence - 2008, AAC (tracks), 256 kbps

Recorded live to multi-track tape at John Zorn's club The Stone in New York City in February 2007, this killer release features stunning, highly-charged duets between these two rising giants of new music. Fast-moving, varied, communicative, humorous and precise, this album kicks ass as well as it feeds heads. While touching on idioms as diverse as Jazz, Black Metal, Prog and beyond the spontaneous music made by this unexpected pairing of virtuosos defies true classification. It is energetic, detailed, dynamic and full of constant surprise and transformation. Brooklyn based guitarist Mary Halvorson is a clear new voice in improvised guitar playing. Her warm tone and articulate, angular phrasing is complimented by a highly defined sense of structure and willingness to take daring risks. Since 2000 Halvorson has been highly visible in the New York new music scene most notably recording and touring Europe and the U.S. with various ensembles led by legendary composer and instrumentalist Anthony Braxton. Other credits include performing in Trevor Dunn s Trio-Convulsant as well as with a wide range of improvised music luminaries such as Joe Morris, Nels Cline, John Tchicai, Elliott Sharp, Andrea Parkins, Marc Ribot and Tony Malaby. Mary also composes for and performs with a chamber-music duo with violist Jessica Pavone, the avant-rock band People and her own trio. The prolific Oakland, California based multi-instrumentalist Weasel Walter (first name/last name - don t call him Walter !), has gained a cult reputation over the last few decades as an intense performer bar none. Concentrating here on drums, his typically hyperactive sense of momentum is tempered by split-second sensitivity. Between 1991 and 2007, Walter was the leading force behind seminal punk jazz/no wave/brutal prog band The Flying Luttenbachers and has been hailed by renegade guitar army general Glenn Branca as one of the greatest rock composers who ever lived. Mr. Walter has performed with a highly diverse and idiosyncratic range of groups and musicians including XBXRX, Lair of the Minotaur, Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Jim O Rourke, Henry Kaiser, Erase Errata, Peter Evans, Bobby Conn and Kevin Drumm.