Rating:
Genre:
Avant Garde
Release Date: 11/10/2009
This group of
minimal electronica newcomers join elder statesman of the
avant-garde Keith Rowe, a guitarist most recognized as a member of pioneering British
improvisation group
AMM. The abstractionist was creating music from noise and other sonic detritus as early as the mid-'60s and quite possibly before his collaborators on this album were born. The Austrian
avant-garde/
IDM label
Mego's masthead Powerbook
noise artist
Pita and
Fennesz join the Australian wing of abstract
electronica --
Oren Ambarchi and
Pimmon -- in a work in which they collectively assimilate their computers into an outstanding
improvisation with the British "prepared" guitarist. While
Keith Rowe's instrument may be from another era, his six strings are not lacking the sonic potential of the
computer music era of his collaborators, not by any means. In fact,
Afternoon Tea does not have the sound of an ad hoc
free improvisation night as it apparently was. Inasmuch, the work of this quintet sounds strikingly familiar to the emphatic
electro-acoustic music of the
Ritornell label; hence it makes for one of the most compelling documents of both
free improvisation and
electronica.
~Martin Walters, All Music Guide