Duo (Victoriaville) 2005

From the 2005 Victoriaville Festival, Anthony Braxton and Fred Frith, two graying lions of free improvisation, innovation, and rugged determination to follow their own individual paths, come together for just under an hour — and in five different encounters — of musical and sonic engagement. The first piece on Duo is almost lyrical in its opening moments. Frith's subtlety and restraint is actually very emotive. Braxton holds back on the tension he is capable of, and the piece remains that way until Braxton can't help himself and takes it to high-pitched skronkville for the last 3 of 11 minutes. It works. There is a great deal of both silence and sonic rhythmic interplay in the second piece. And it is one of the most fascinating songs here. The nearly 23 minute "Improvisation No. 3" has four distinct sections or dynamic episodes within it which capture Braxton's varying responses to Frith's pulsing beats on the guitar neck There is a snake-like charm to the way this changes hands, and who leads here. It's wooly, but it is also so utterly intuitive and sensible it nearly feels like a composed piece. It's bloody brilliant and worth the price of the disc alone. The ballad-like "Improvisation No. 4" is merely a breather, but it is spacious and quite beautiful before the conical, explosive sopranino as Braxton goes for the throat in "No. 5." Here circular breathing creates the spirals that Frith roils around and plays inside of, with distortion and fantastic control of his volume and tone knobs as he flies over the fretboard. This would have been a dynamite show to see. It's very inspired, playful, and in places, breathtaking.