cd – EVERYTHING WE LOVE AND MORE – press
HUW WARREN & PETER HERBERT – Everything We Love And More (Babel 2561; EEC)
Huw Warren: piano/toys
Peter Herbert: bass/prepared bass
Featuring Huw Warren on piano & Peter Herbert on contrabass. You should know of master-bassist Peter Herbert from the half dozen great discs that we’ve reviewed over the past few years, solos, duos (w/ Dave Tronzo) and even a bass sextet.
British pianist, Huw Warren, is a name that I only vaguely remember, yet he has worked with June Tabor & Mark Feldman, has three solo discs on Babel, a duo disc with Pete Whyman on FMR and is in a band called the Perfect Houseplants.
This Peter Herbert’s second duo disc with a pianist, the first was a decade ago with Peter Madsen. That one was great (I just found a copy recently),but this one is even more extraordinary. Huw plays inside the piano as well as and the duo do a fabulous job of creating suspense and more mesmerizing sounds. Some of the pieces are quite beautiful and lyrical with some superb and exquisite piano from Huw. At times both players will rub their respective instruments with various objects creating strange and eerie sounds, often evoking cosmic spirits being cut loose. Sometimes Huw will mute the strings with his hands (?) and provide some fascinating percussive sounds. He is a master of these sounds and the duo often sound amazing exploring and combining their sounds together.
This is quite a marvelous duo that should get the recognition they well deserve.
– BLG Bruce, Downtown Music Gallery NYC –