Reviews:
(Vital Weekly) Lastly, on cassette is the trio Dustceawung (or, rather, dustsceawung). They are Miri Karraker (viola), Noah Ophoven-Baldwin (cornet) and Mitch Stahlmann (flute). They started in Minneapolis in 2017 with a shared interest in lowercase music, small sounds, and “questions around instrument proficiency”. They played a few concerts in 2017 and 2018 but drifted apart for various reasons and reconvened in 2022 via Zoom. If I understand this, they used Zoom to create music, play together, listen, adding sounds. On this cassette is a recording of that, found on the B side, while on the A side, there is a recording from 2018. Their love for small sounds is evident, as they keep their volume down and their sounds small. One only sometimes recognises the instruments played by scraping, rubbing, touching and so forth their instruments. In their 2018 piece, they like to keep things together, and small plus small equals something not very big. There is, perhaps, only sometimes a lot of ‘definition’ in their playing, but I assume that’s how they like these things. On their 2022 recording, there is a bit more on the definition side, but at the same time, the fondness to keep things small and very much together is still strong. As such, both sides have little difference, even when the 2018 recording starts with something that uses electronics, which didn’t seem part of the 2022 recording. I slightly preferred the 2018 recording, mainly because of the apparent presence of electronics, expanding their music a bit beyond the sometimes too-intimate part. - Frans de Waard
(Lost In A Sea Of Sound) Pressure relief..... these are the sounds to listen with caution. dustsceawung is a well used pot on the stove with a locking lid. The broken gauge configured with a crack that looks suspiciously like a smile. A worn rubber gasket creating a seal far past it's expected life by the manufacturer. Still this is not enough. There is no measure to how much force lies within. A hiss escapes, a rattle or knocking comes and goes. The process continues with thoughts of the contents within. In this case three conscious beans are cooking at controlled heat. Miri Karraker playing viola, Noah Ophoven-Baldwin wielding the cornet and Mitch Stahlmann engaging the flute. Their sounds are slowly infusing together. Each artist well aware of the applied degree needed to facilitate the congruence with the others. Two twenty minute selections on this composition. "firn" recorded in 2018 and "fold" recorded in 2022. There is a similarity between these two pieces, but "firn" is just a bit more stewed with almost a drone canvas. "fold" has a vividness in clarity and is more acute the entire way through. The instruments on "fold" pierce thoughts with a sharper edge, creating a mysterious world on the peripheral of consciousness. dustsceawung is an Old English word meaning "the acknowledgment of dust as once having been other things, living beings or civilizations past". Not to much information on dustsceawung the trio is out there. Bryan Day included a nice write up by Frans de Waard on the release page. Thank you for this and thanks again for the label eh? in delivering the farthest thresholds for sound. Physical copies are available on cassette from the label here. - Ken Lower
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