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1.
Decca 08:00
2.
Rata 04:12
3.
Maris 05:31
4.
Musa 09:26

about

"The Bay Area has long been a hotbed of creative music, though at one point musicians active in the San Francisco & Oakland scenes had to move eastward in order to get recognized (including reedists Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Simmons and Prince Lasha). It's now less a regional proving ground and more a vital homebase, nurturing the music of figures like cellist Teddy Rankin-Parker, violinist Kristina Dutton, saxophonist Aram Shelton and drummer Daniel Pearce, who make up the newish Broken Trap Ensemble. The cellist and drummer also haev an ongoing duo called R-P/P (rankinparkerpearce.bandcamp.com/album/odd-hits), while Dutton is active in both new music and improvisation climates. Shelton, a Mills electro-acoustic composition graduate, might be the most well-known of the four musicians here as he's been a long time fixture in modern improvisation, but the Broken Trap Ensemble is entirely collective in approach, with no one voice claiming leadership.

The four pieces here clock in at just under a half hour, but leave an undeniable imprint with folksy, sinewy arco passages that seem to have emerged from somewhere on the Bosporus amid wet, curling alto declarations and Pearce's dry, auxiliary patter. That's just the first piece, titled "decca," which stamps itself as unlike any chamber music - improvised or composed - in recent memory. Shelton and Pearce exhibit an arching surge on "Rata," before the quartet pair off in contrapuntal duets of percussive clamor and bitter swoops. "Maris" provides grainy drones executed with the ease of breathing, nudged by delicate rattle and Shelton's jagged purr. While the four musicians on this recording may not be household names (even in the relatively small household of free improvisation), that should not dissuade - revelatory string improvisations that nevertheless hew towards classicism, sensitive and telepathic percussive color, and the subdued clarity of Shelton's alto make the Broken Trap Ensemble an engaging and uncommon listen."

--Clifford Allen
Brooklyn, NY
October 2014

credits

released December 5, 2014

Aram Shelton - alto sax
Kristina Dutton - violin
Teddy Rankin-Parker - cello
Daniel Pierce - drums

Recorded March 25, 2013 by Jacob Winik at Tiny Telephone, San Francisco, CA.

Mixed by Aram Shelton, Mastered by James Fei.

All music by Aram Shelton (BMI), Teddy Rankin-Parker, Kristina Dutton & Daniel Pearce.

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Broken Trap Ensemble San Francisco, California

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