An interesting kind of "nexus" recording, from three events in 2000 and 2001, with a quartet of musicians, two of whom seem to be coming from more of an EFI (European Free Improvisation) approach while two are on their way toward a more eai (electro-acoustic improvisation) take on things. With the latter field just beginning to come into its own at this point, there's certainly an amount of oil and water in play, making "Ilinx" perhaps more satisfying to observe as a kind of object lesson than as a more or less successful series of pieces.
Alto saxophonist Lars Scherzberg and percussionist Jacob Thein hold up the "traditional" FMP attack, which is to say they favor activity over reticence, anxious expressiveness over considered detachment. Guitarist/electronicist Serge Baghdassarians and sampler/electronicist Boris Baltschun occupy the other hemisphere, attempting to cool things down, to investigate purely sonic aspects while placing their discoveries within the space they reside. The twain rarely meets. Oddly, given what one assumes to be essentially an improvisatory situation, compositional credits are listed, the first five tracks sourced to either Scherzberg or Thein, the last five to the electronics pair. They may indeed be somewhat more prominent in the second half of the disc, but the general attack doesn't vary so much: chattering, a profusion of bird-like tones and an apparent goal of filling the sonic space consistently rather than introducing sounds into the mix in any subtle manner. In relation to prior FMP-style recordings, this fits in securely, the electronics providing some added spice, but essentially, it's nothing conceptually different than any hundreds of albums produced over the preceding twenty years. If Baghdassarians and Baltschun were attempting to steer their companions into different realms, they were only minimally successful, coming closest on the concluding track, "Autoreverse", where the pings and clatter mesh into something of a Tudor-esque weave that's very attractive. In that divide between EFI and eai, fans of the former may enjoy Ilinx just fine while those partial to the latter are likely to be annoyed at what Radu Malfatti famously referred to as gabbiness.
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