While I was playing the last new CD on Monotype I was trying to remember when I saw David Moss Dense Band play live. Twenty-five years ago? Longer? I am sure I went by recommendation of Dolf Mulder and I do remember it was a nice concert. The name David Moss I see every now and then, but this CD with Hannes Strobl might be the first thing I properly hear in ages. Strobl has worked with Moss before, together with Hanno Leichtmann as Denseland. He's a bass player who also works with electronics. Moss himself was originally a drummer, but went on to use his voice, and played with the American Composers Orchestra and performed with orchestral works of Heiner Goebbels. The starting points for this collaboration were pieces for electric bass by Strobl, to which Moss added his voice. I gather this is all in some improvised way, but it perhaps sounds less likely than what you would expect. Maybe you (I?) would expect some jumpy, free jazzy music, but the seven pieces here are actually quite moody and introspective. Densely layered with sounds - bass and electronic one assumes - with the voice talking (also layered) as in 'Shoebox No 4 Open', but also just wordless mumble in 'Placing Reeds', an excellent obscured piece of music. 'Critical Band' is then what you would expect, but it's also the shortest piece here. The whole thing has more a notion of 'hörspiel' around it, of a more mysterious origin. Excellent stuff, which sounds more composed than improvised.
