(Free Improvisation, Electroacoustic) [CD] Anthony Guerra, Paul Hood, Joel Stern - Low Resistance Group - 2003, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Recorded in London, 14 November 2002, #5 on ResonanceFM, 18 August 2002
Edited and mastered by Joel Stern in Melbourne, April 2003
Visual artwork / design: Michael Rodgers
Thank you: Kimiho Mori, Akira Toyonaga, Busratch (Katsura Mouri, Takahiro Yamamoto), Makiko Yamamoto and family
Australian improvised music has come into its own. Many listeners have become familiar with Oren Ambarchi, whose collaborations with Voice Crack, Keith Rowe, and other improvisers have put him on the map. But many of the best recordings from Down Under have come courtesy of these three musicians (not least on the excellent label Two Thousand And). Here Anthony Guerra plays electric guitar and electronics (I highly recommend his solo recording Spool [#2], by the way); Paul Hood plays GP3 record player, amplified objects and mixing desk; and Joel Stern is credited with field recordings, contact mikes and electronics. They whip up six tracks of quite varying approaches, all combining – with different degrees of intensity and success – field recordings, electronics and guitar. Each is an improvisation recorded in London in 2002, and remixed (and to a certain degree, possibly reconstructed) back home in Melbourne.
The best piece on the disc is the opening track, which features snatches of prerecorded crowd noise and applause segueing into lovely melodic loops that are stalked persistently by crackles, glitches and other claustrophobic noises that prevent the mood from stabilizing. Much of the most prominent material comes from Guerra bowing his guitar (something he does quite effectively but which, in the last two years, he seems to have abandoned). Each of the improvisations here is interested in density of sound, though none is particularly challenging; the mood is often quite drone-based and could reasonably be called psychedelic. The aqueous, subterranean feel of the fifth selection – with its grittiness and edge – is a pleasantly provocative exception (it also features the most direct, visceral, and volatile exchanges of the disc).
But the overall tranquility (dare I say the low resistance?) is interesting because, even though many of the individual sounds used here – rubbed metal, hissing, high-pitched feedback and electronic crackles – might seem extreme on their own, the integration of the lot yields a very warm, very human sound. I suspect that some keys to this impression are Stern’s adept choice of field recordings and Guerra’s intimate, Burkhard Stangl-like guitar work. The brevity and relative focus of these tracks is to be admired, though it might be better appreciated in a single long-form improvisation. That may be just nitpicking, since this is fine music. But it’s hard not to be conscious of the superior work these musicians have done elsewhere. - Jason Bivins, Dusted Magazine
Recorded in November 2002, the three fine Australian musicians responsible for this album have all progressed notably in the interim. Nonetheless, the six improvisations herein have their moments and, with the advantage of hindsight, lay something of the base for more recent activity. Guerra (on guitar), Hood (turntables, amplified objects, mixer) and Stern (field recordings, contact mics, electronics) are well positioned to construct dense sound assemblages, Guerra often (as is his tendency) providing some tonal leavening amongst the noise. The opening track, in fact, has a good deal in common with some of his solo work, backwards guitar (if I’m not mistaken), coursing through the gritty, debris-strewn soundscapes evoked by his colleagues. Along with the fifth track (all untitled), it’s the most strikingly successful, combining sonic richness with an implied propulsion. I’ve been a sucker for this direction before and I remain so. However, it’s the sort of music I prefer to enjoy on a longer scale. Here, the shorter improvisations cast a somewhat constrained feeling over the disc, lending it more the air of a sampler than of a cohesive statement, something that’s never been a problem with releases from the same group of musicians, in varying contexts, on their own Twothousandand label. Several of the remaining tracks are harsher and more fragmentary, for this listener’s taste an area where they’re a smidgen less effective, sounding not very distinguishable from the work of others in similar territory. I continue to have the impression that their underlying lyricism, however masked or buried, is one of the great strengths of this cadre of improvisers. This includes Stern’s choice of field recordings which often possess an uncanny and unsettling beauty akin to those of Toshiya Tsunoda. Any misgivings I have are not so much about the music itself, much of which is excellent, but simply that the musicians involved have moved on considerably in the relatively brief interval between recording session and release and I’m much more keen to hear what they’ve done this past summer than two years ago. Low Resistance Group (I’m unsure, incidentally, whether this is just the title of the disc or the working band name) is still worth hearing, however, even if the ground covered will be familiar to fans of the individuals involved. - Brian Olewnick

Anthony Guerra: electric guitar, electronics
Paul Hood: GP3 record player, amplified objects, mixing desk
Joel Stern: field recordings, contact mics, electronics