Tuesday 7 July 2015, 8pm
A real pleasure to welcome back to OTO the great drummer Chris Corsano and fantastic Danish saxophonist Mette Rasmussen. Rasmussen performed in an utterly cathartic quartet performance alongside Corsano, Alan Wilkinson and Pat Thomas as part of Chris' triumphant five-day residency here last year, and as a duo the pair have been pushing at the limits of the classic sax/drums set-up. Mette Rasmussen and Chris Corsano’s debut album as a duo is released by Relative Pitch in 2015.
“Rasmussen's duo with Corsano is another extreme endeavour – as can be heard on their debut album… In revisiting the template laid down by John Coltrane and Rashied Ali on Interstellar Space, the pair pick up on a quintessential and enduring out-jazz configuration – the sax/drums duo… What stands out most on the album is the duo's use of space. There's very little in the way of gratuitous skronk – but plenty of room for Rasmussen to investigate a wide palette of voicing, from a raggedly insistent fluttering, through a softly trilling multiphonic purr, and on to high, expressive leaps into flashes of altissimo, just riding the razored edge of controlled lyricism.” – Daniel Spicer, The WIRE
CHRIS CORSANO is an upstate NY-based drummer who has been active at the intersections of collective improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock, and noise music since the late 1990's. Corsano is one of the greatest drummers working today, developing a percussive language of extraordinary amplitude and infinite resources. His collaborations stretch from free jazz greats (Joe McPhee, Evan Parker, Paul Flaherty & more) to noise mavens (Jandek, Bill Nace, C Spencer Yeh etc) and pop superstars (Björk). Capable of generating narrative out of permanent ecstasy, Corsano never ceases to be profoundly affirmative and imposing of his language, and being an absolute and charismatic virtuoso, he simultaneously is one of the most noble and generous improvisers of the few last decades.
A move from western Massachusetts to the UK in 2005 led Corsano to develop his solo music - a dynamic, spontaneously-composed amalgam of extended techniques for drum set and non-percussive instruments of his own making: e.g. bowed violin strings stretched across drum heads, modified reed instruments, and stockpiles of resonant metal. In February 2006, Corsano released his first solo recording, The Young Cricketer, and toured extensively throughout Europe, USA, Australia, and Japan. In 2009, Corsano returned focus to his own projects, including a duo with Michael Flower, Vampire Belt (with Bill Nace), Rangda (with Richard Bishop and Ben Chasny) and his solo work, further expanded in its use of contact microphones and synthesizers. In 2017, he received the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artist Award.
Corsano's dedication to collective improvisation has led to collaborations with many kindred spirits and his appearance on over 150 records and 1000 live performances. He's worked with, among others: Paul Dunmall (released by ESP-Disk), Joe McPhee (Roaratorio), Okkyung Lee (Open Mouth), Earth Ball (Upset The Rhythm), Nate Wooley (No Business & Astral Spirits), Jim O'Rourke & Akira Sakata (Drag City), Merzbow (Family Vineyard), Jessica Rylan (Load Records), John Edwards, Nels Cline, Heather Leigh, Ghédalia Tazartès and Sunburned Hand Of Man.
https://chriscorsano.bandcamp.com/music
Mette Rasmussen is a Danish saxophone player based in Trondheim, Norway. She works in the field of improvised music, drawing from a wide range of influences, spanning free jazz to textural soundwork. Rasmussen works on exploring the natural rawness of her instrument - experimenting on what the saxophone is capable of in sound and expression, with and without preparations. Much in demand, she has performed with the likes of Alan Silva, Chris Corsano, Ståle Liavik Solberg, and with her Trio Riot group with Sam Andreae and David Meier.
"Mette Rasmussen has a remarkably fluid and expressive tone on the alto saxophone. Her playing at times evokes the rich, heavenward clarity of Albert Ayler, at others the throaty roar of Mats Gustafsson. Equally, though, she’s able to sidestep these influences and assert her own individual sound in piercingly high tones and controlled outbursts of free playing." - Viennese Waltz
