Main Page

Penumbra CD002
THE DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS


 


THE DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS features the acoustic improvisations of guitarist John Corbett and multi-instrumentalist Hal Rammel. The sixteen selections on this disc pair the rich variety of John Corbett's guitar improvisations (frequently extending conventional guitar technique in the use of knitting needles, files, friction mallets, spoons, etc. played on the strings and body of the guitar) with the unique instrumental palette of Hal Rammel's musical saws, miscellaneous percussion, and numerous instruments of his own design and construction. The triolin, interweaving with Corbett's prepared guitar on "Franz," was invented by Hal Rammel in 1986 and might best be described as a nail violin gone awry. The snath heard on "Plink, Plank, and Plunk" is an unusually shaped single-string instrument using a curved scythe handle as it's neck. The devil's fiddle, played by Rammel in the duets which open and close this collection, is based on research into the German Teufelsgiege or bumbass, instruments more often associated with carnival or homemade street-corner percussion. Hal Rammel and John Corbett have been playing freely improvised music together since 1990. From Radu Malfatti's liner notes: "...to me this disc contains some of the most exciting and valuable improvised music coming from America. The sensitivity of interaction and the obvious listening-to-each-other is really breathtaking." Cover painting by Gina Litherland; liner notes by Radu Malfatti.



 
 

Email Penumbra Music
Copyright © Penumbra Music