Chewing Pine

I Heart Lung – Interoceans (Asthamatic Kitty, 2008)

It’s difficult to comment upon what’s actually being heard as opposed to the ideas propping up these sounds. A lot happens in the expanse of these tracks that extend only the briefest glimpse into traditional song craft – there’s no good way to simplify that. Each of the four movements that make up Interoceans boast multiple stages, but not in a verse, chorus, verse simplicity. No one can whistle these works, but you can’t whistle a lot of Mingus compositions either, so that’s not a fair criticism.

Interoceans begins with drumming and a torrent of guitar buzz, perhaps suggesting a totally rock oriented roll out of old tricks. A few times here and throughout the other movements of Interoceans it sounds as if there’s going to be a groove accomplished. There isn’t one in a traditional sense, but what Tom Steck and Chris Schlarb accomplish is a cohesive sway to each track. Slow, but dense because of the fervid drumming and the loquacious electric guitar, the lead off track continues to include a softly toned acoustic guitar before petering out.

Schlarb, guitarist and conductor, remains in total control of the various musical contributors on this slab because in the end he edits and produces each track. The other three works proffer a rather blunt eastern theme leading to the question, why would the first track be void of such influence? Schlarb, as master of the proceedings, has created a unified work despite incorporating a number of different players. But this one thematic lapse, had it been addressed could have further strengthened a studious recording.

When Nels Cline’s sitar kicks up and the music shifts from being a mismatch of disparate parts to some serpentine behemoth of rock, jazz and eastern influence, it moves IHL away from some of the more muscular jamming indicated on Between Them a Forest Grew, Trackless and Quiet. Only during a latter section of the second track as well as during the final few minutes of the fourth track does the spasmodic drumming of Steck recall his previous recorded work. The inclusion of hand drumming during movement IV invokes Shakti as opposed to simply Miles Davis and his electric groups. But this music has no direct lineage and to call it jazz or improvised music is to diminish the work. As a duo IHL can conjure visions not summoned on Interoceans, but as a free collaborative effort IHL succeeds in creating musical moods that other current avant-leaning musicians are incapable of.