Terje Paulsen and Ákos Garai ~ Vertikale Skift

An initial look at the digital download implies that the tracks are out of order: five “Skisse” tracks from Norway’s Terje Paulsen interspersed with four “Waterworks” tracks from Hungary’s Ákos Garai, founder of the 3leaves label.  And yet to separate the two is the dim the light of the entire project.  Paulsen and Garai were onto something with their game plan, because the album works best with the current track sequencing.  Skisse is the Norwegian word for sketch or study, and Paulsen’s quieter contributions do at first seem like outlines: the impressionistic borders to Garai’s glistening sheets.  A puzzle needs a frame, and the contrast between the thick and the thin helps the listener to appreciate both.  In “Waterworks I”, the water sounds like a burst pipe; in the second segment, the deluge has slowed to a trickle, but wanders speaker-to-speaker like an unidentifiable leak.  Paulsen surrounds these entries with his own studies of static and silence, guaranteeing that the white noise and whirl of “Waterworks III” will be welcomed when they arrive.  But by the end of this piece, Garai seems to have turned contemplative as well; perhaps the two are not so far apart as they initially seemed.  As each composer presents his final piece, Vertikale Skift morphs into a single tale.  (Richard Allen)

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Available here