Negoum

This album is the first studio recording of two seemingly disparate virtuosi—Egyptian-born, New York-based bouzouki/classical guitar player Ayman Fanous and American, France-based cellist Frances-Marie Uitti—sharing a dialogue of traditions and their unraveling. In the former vein, Fanous brings his knowledge of taksim(a style of melodic improvisation prevalent in Middle Eastern music) and Uitti hers of classical precision while in the latter both seem to become increasingly connected as they drift further from canonical moorings. In Uitti’s duets with bouzouki, such as the opening 16 minutes that are “Adhara,” self-examination prevails. As for the tracks featuring guitar in place of bouzouki, one senses that something beyond magical is taking place. Rather, it’s a process of mental elimination, resulting in music of astonishing subtlety.

For half the program, Uitti employs a two-bow technique of her own innovation. But one might never know it because she plays with such an integrated mode of expression that her gestures are organic, soulful. Every line stands precisely where it should be standing and rests where it should be resting. Fanous approaches the primal pluck with two rural exhalations for every urban inhalation, blending Western and non- Western persuasions without fraying a stitch.

While highlights may be pointed out—among them the quasi-triptych of “Alnitac,” “Megrez” and “Alioth” at album center—what we have here is something greater than the sum of its parts. These are musicians far less interested in defining anything in particular than in cracking open the very concept of definition like an egg and frying it on the pans of their instruments until its savor curls up to the fortunate listener. Proof that dualism needn’t be a constant negotiation of dominance but rather a cyclical process of translation by which the original utterance and its re-rendering become indistinguishable to the point of nourishing a universal form of communication.

The very flexible tone systems of the Middle East and Southern Asia have influenced Western music for decades. From John Coltrane to Jimmy Page and George Harrison, the sounds of those regions have often successfully fused with the disciplined beat of the West. Egyptian-born, New York-based guitarist and bouzouki player Ayman Fanous and American-born, Paris-based cellist Frances-Marie Uitti bring East and West together on Negoum but not in a predictable manner.

Fanous appears to be most comfortable in the company of string players. He has recorded twice as a co-leader, with cellist Tomas Ulrich on Labyrinths (Konnex Records, 2007), and with violinist Jason Kao Hwangon Zilzal (Innova, 2013). His performances include duos with William Parker, Mark Feldman, Ned Rothenberg, and Mat Maneri. The experimentalist Uitti is widely regarded as one of the most original cellists in modern music. She has developed an extended two-bow method which converts her cello into a rich polyphonic instrument. Uitti has collaborated with John Cage, Elliott Sharp, Mark Dresser and many others from the top tier of the avant-garde.

At more than sixteen-minutes, the opening track, "Adhara," occupies a quarter of the album's length. With Fanous playing bouzouki and Uitti alternating between one bow and two, the piece conveys the melodic musical improvisation known as Taqsim in the Arabic-speaking world. Uitti adds elements of drone and Western melody to a frequently-shifting soundscape. The duo paints a broad swath across the remaining tracks; Uitti coaxes raw, unnatural sounds from the cello on "Caph"; Fanous augments "Nekkar" with gentle flamenco passages. "Megrez," the other extended piece on Negoum, combines East/West folk rhythms, Western classical and improvisation in a stunning union of influences.

Fanous writes in his liner notes that he and Uitti met for the first time—in concert—in 2011. The pair improvised for just a few minutes, met in the studio the following day and produced this outstanding music. It isn't jazz or any other genre, but there are rudiments of many musical traditions within. Negoum is a fascinating album from two master composer-musicians.

Expressing simpatico stimulus these cello-centred duos reach a similar apex of free-flowing inspiration, although arriving from contrasting starting points. Although both have worked with improvisers such as Bern Nix, Elliott Sharp, Mark Dresser and Agustí Fernández, American cellist Frances-Marie Uitti and Egyptian-American guitarist/ bouzouki player Ayman Fanous are more identified with New music and a variant of so-called World Music respectively, while American cellist Tomeka Reid and British pianist Alexander Hawkins are firmly in the Jazz-improvised music tradition, having both worked with Anthony Braxton, Hawkins with the likes of Louis Moholo-Moholo and Reid is a member of the AACM.

Still what appears most obvious on the surface can be deceptive. Among the Shards and Constellations for instance are variations on tunes by AACM mentors Muhal Richard Abrams and Leroy Jenkins plus eight instant compositions. Meanwhile Negoum, which means stars in Arabic, negotiates faint non-Western and chromatic music inferences plus extended techniques into nine singular improvisations.

Fanous’ traditional sounding, but actually unorthodox, approach to playing the three-course bouzouki adds a Greco-Turkish shimmer to the tracks on which it’s featured, starting with the 16¼ -minute “Adhara”. But as his surging timbres intersect but do not harmonize with the cello, surging continuum is divided as synchronic accents from Uitti’s two bows pluck heavier thrusts and focused glissandi against Fanous’ dissected fails. These torqued detours alternate with sequences in which surging strums from the plectrumist or vibrating pushes from the cellist create an unbroken continuum. The concluding “Nekkar” is the other instance of this two-bow-bouzouki mash-up, but with brighter textures. It mostly depends on a gradual thickening of the exposition propelled by Fanous’s twanging and Uitti string surges.

Still, the two can also create an undulating narrative as Uitti, using her two bows to create a simple motif beside Famous’ simple chording, does so on tunes like “Zaurac”. Finally the collaboration reaches penultimate showcases on “Alnitac” and “Rasalased”, where flamenco-like strokes from either of Fanous’ instruments ferociously move forward with bent note pinches as Uitti does the same with spiccato jerks and stabs from only one bow. Yet the most intriguing duet is the extended “Aloch”, which may be mislabeled as “Megrez” in the booklet. Here ringing plectrum pressure emphasizing non-Western licks insinuates the timbres alongside warm two-bow cello string expansions. As the line is stretched to become higher-pitched, intensity is doubled until the results are vibrated into a string-slapping finale.

Introducing another string (and keys) set to a cello duo produces an improvisational variant on the other CD. Unlike the Arabic titles on Negoum, Hawkins’ and Reid’s cuts are named almost literally so that a track like “Serene and Playful” sounds exactly as imagined with gentleness that signals it’s involved with mood not movement; while “Danced Together” with its swinging piano arpeggios and bass clef pumps from the cello, attains the swing groove promised. At the same time, “Strange Familiar” could serve as a metaphor not only for the performance on that track, but for many others as well. As the two players squeak across the exposition with slick piano vibrations and sprawling cello loops, the effect is both conversational and craggy. Overall it would appear that “strange” and “familiar” are equally balanced so that expected patterns are given a newness to make them innovative.

That means for instance that a track like “A Guess That Deepens” wraps the atonality of scouring sul tasto from Reid’s resonating strings with clanking piano rhythm that concludes with a double-time Blues. While the beginning of “Sung Together” which features hand-stopped piano key plinks and strained rubs from the tightly would cello strings dissolves into a congenial melody that with power throbs its way to Bebop affiliations.

The AACM covers are telling as well. A moody requiem, Jenkins’ “Albert Ayler (His Life Was Too Short)” matches church-like harmonies from the piano with solemn multi-string swells that in a muted ambulatory fashion manage to suggest the secular-spiritual duality that was Ayler. “Peace on You” by Abrams is also the CD’s longest track during which the two deftly skim the melody from degenerating into ECM-like prettiness. Although echoing with perfectly rounded pops from the cello and pacific comping from the piano, metronomic patterning and tremolo glissandi finally unite the story-telling into unison counterpoint.

Inventive formulas and cerebral cooperation involving two sets of linked string instruments show what can be accomplished in duo form as musical strands are united in unique fashions.

Guitarist and composer Ayman Fanous is a musical explorer who thrives in duet settings. He has recorded three such outings over a span of a dozen years, the latter of which is the mystical and haunting Negoum (Stars in Arabic). On it Fanous collaborates with the restlessly inventive cellist Frances-Marie Uitti, who has pushed boundaries of her instrument into uncharted territory.

When writing the music for this album Fanous drew inspiration from the work of medieval Islamic scholar and astronomer Abu al-Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad Al-Biruni. Hence each of the eight originals is titled after a star that has an Arabic name.

Overall there is an ethereal ambience that is appropriate given the theme of the recording. "Alioth," for instance, is like a fantastical and modernistic tale that opens with Uitti's contemplative and meandering lines. Fanous punctuates the cello's soliloquy with sparse and resonant notes. As the spontaneous dialogue evolves it becomes fiery and angular at the climax and closes with a captivating melange of Eastern and Western harmonies.

There are other ethnomusical flavors that appear throughout. Fanous uses the bouzouki, greco-turkish lute, for a more middle eastern sound in addition to the acoustic guitar. On the expectant "Caph" his lithe and crystalline strums hint to the Andalusian Flamenco tradition. Meanwhile Uitti, using 2 bows, responds with uniquely mesmerizing phrases. The two stream-of-consciousness improvisations coalesce into a thrillingly dissonant dialogue that obliterates the silence that was so deftly used at the opening of the tune.

The pièce de résistance of the release is the multi-layered and cinematic "Adhara." Fanous' lyrical refrains and Uitti's melancholic vamps built a darkly shimmering melody with a hypnotic mood. Passionately poetic the duo's sonic swirls and individual, reverberating tones balance wistful yearning with a zen serenity. The elegant ebb and flow of the extemporization is stimulating, emotive and sublime.

Even though their career trajectories have not been parallel, what Fanous and Uitti have in common is their bold ingenuity and disregard for narrow genreisms. Negoum is the successful result of their mutual creative experimentations. With it the two artistic innovators have uncovered the abstract universality of music itself