HOLY CHEEVER CHURCH TAPES:
Two new tapes in from Holy Cheever Church, a label based in Livonia/Detroit, Michigan, and dedicated to documenting the fertile improv scene going on there right now, as well as like-minded groups from across the country and Canada. Both are stellar and much different than the improv I'm used to seeing here in Portland. If there's a through line, it's an attention to interesting texture and an even-tempered, almost methodical, approach to playing. This is in contrast to a style that favors big dynamic shifts and wilder playing. I am very intrigued by these tapes and the scene they represent. (Chris Riggs is about to start an East Coast tour, Bent Spoon Duo have a new disc out on Bug Incision.)

MIKE KHOURY/CHRIS RIGGS -
MY WORDS CAME OUT SLOW AND ODD - HCC 024
Two players, violin and electric guitar. Awesome stuff here. This tape is a long-form exploration of the two instruments interacting, and over the course of it's twenty-odd minutes passes through seething, molten textures, wistful minimalism, spacey drones and skronky squiggles. Well-paced and refreshingly restless. $5

BENT SPOON DUO - FOSSILS OF SLUMBER - HCC 020
Lovely tape of bubbling, small-scale improv from this Calgary duo. Lots of bumping, scraping, plucking and tapping. It's very playful, but with a very wide palette of sound -- childlike, out-of-tune strings share space with burbling electronic sounds. Small and mysterious. $5