Benedict Taylor, Dirk Serries

"Spreading their intuitive playing over nine, randomly sequenced improvisation titled with numbers, Benedict Taylor and Dirk Serries many variations on fiddle string twists and slurred guitar fingering produce tunes that are manually constructed, deconstructed and put back together again. Tracks often posit and resolve singular experiments. For instance, the hard dry swagger of IV opens up into a tremolo and spiccato bowed narrative. Swift, repetative slithers from Taylor enliven IX as Serries’ guitar strings are crunched and hammered. Once he turns to slurred fingering the contrast with spirited viola glissandi is that much more pronounced. Then there’s V, where bottleneck guitar stabs coupled with brief, metallic fiddle strokes create a tightened claustrophobic narrative. VI and VII may be the most authoritative tracks however. On the former the pressure exerted with string sprawls joins guitar whines and frails for a split tone outer-space hoedown, Later Taylor’s pizzicato banjo-like clanking meets reductionist clanks from Serries that are as attuned to Derek Bailey’s advances. Yet peeping notes and near silences are also present so that the exposition is reflective as well as rugged. Upfront is their creations and unafraid to sound dyspeptic as well as amiable timbres, Serries-Taylor have created an imaginative disc which synthesize somewhat incompatible influences into unique programs." - Jazzword

Benedict Taylor : viola
Dirk Serries : acoustic guitar
Performed, recorded, mixed and mastered at the Sunny Side Inc. Studio, Anderlecht (Belgium) on June 2nd 2018.