Honey Pie, recorded live in France in May 2001, is the second part of our three-part series with recordings documenting the cooperation of Keith Rowe and Oren Ambarchi. Part 1 was the CD Thumb (GROB 432, recently re-released, Rowe/Ambarchi/Avenaim in a quintet with Oren Ambarchi/Sachiko M and Otomo Yoshihide); part 3, which will be released in nine months, will document the first real-time duo gig of Ambarchi and Rowe.
If Thumb was about something like ”absence in presence,” about, well, the artsy trick of improvising like a quintet and sounding simply like a duo, then Honey Pie is a dynamic, powerful 40-minute recording. The static intimated at the beginning and lasting for four or five minutes is cautiously preserved by the musicians – Rowe and Ambarchi on guitars, Avenaim on percussion, all three on live electronics – and this static is transformed in a constantly changing process. On Thumb, the tension was produced using static (via an endless extension of a ”something”) and therefore ”disappointed,” we hear on Honey Pie tension sans phrase. At first there is no drone, no GREAT SOUND, upon which the musicians can comfortably retire (the great sound, which then originates in the process of the improvisation is rich and complex in itself). They improvise without flourish, develop small structures of a nearly motive-like character. Thanks to this, the stringency, too, of Rowe’s flatness is questioned, albeit softly. Honey Pie thus leaves the impression of a near playful, loose session. Listen to it loudly!

Oren Ambarchi (also on GROB432)

Robbie Avenaim (also on GROB432)

Keith Rowe (also on GROB206/7, GROB209, GROB432)

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