Subscribe
now to receive all the new
music
....... JMY ....... [RIP 2015-2023] creates,
including this release
and 114 back-catalog releases,
delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android.
You’ll also get access to
subscriber-only
exclusives.
Learn more.
Recorded pre-pandemic but evoking its rollercoaster moods - tentative calm, nervous anxiety, claustrophobia, and confusion giving way to moments of excited release - "Apposite Rejoinder" is the debut release from the duo of Graham Stephenson and Jesse Kudler. Long-time free improvisers and staples of their respective Chicago and Philadelphia musical communities, Stephenson and Kudler bring their distinctive approaches together for the first time in the studio. Stephenson plays amplified trumpet, close-mic'd to reveal a wealth of interior detail derived from circular breathing and other extended techniques. Kudler performs in stereo on guitar, radios, transmitters, tapes, and electronics.
"Apposite Rejoinder" was improvised live to multi-track in two sessions before being carefully mixed and edited by Kudler for maximum hi-fi impact. A world of layered and shifting spaces is revealed from the sundry amplification techniques at hand: a microphone close on the trumpet's piping, the pickups of electric guitar, contact and cassette recorder microphones, and live room sampling on tape.
At a moment of renewed appreciation for in-person group activities and live collaboration, "Apposite Rejoinder" is a thrilling reminder of the possibilities of collective free improvisation. Carefully-honed voices join to create a unique music, where individual contributions are frequently impossible to distinguish within rushes of noisy energy.
***
Graham Stephenson uses amplification to bring interior aspects of the trumpet to the fore. Through the use of highly pressurized breath, valve rotation, and extreme embouchure, the instrument becomes an unpitched sound generator adaptable to improvised settings combining acoustic and electronic sound palettes. He was initially influenced by Greg Kelley and has performed with Zoots Houston, Carol Genetti, Fred Lonberg-Holm, claire rousay, Jason Stein, Richard Kamerman, and others. Recordings are available on Erstwhile Records, Pilgrim Talk, and Hideous Replica.
Jesse Kudler is a musician, composer, performer, and sound artist working in improvisation, collaboration, and site-specificity to examine authorship, intention, agency, ambiguous affects, and modes and practices of listening. He uses guitar, electronics, recordings, keyboards, synthesizers, radios, tapes, movement, and text.
Kudler lives in Philadelphia, PA. Current projects include solo acoustic guitar improvisation, solo church organ performance, and performance duo with dancer Christina Gesualdi. Kudler has also performed with Tim Albro, Ian Fraser, Chandan Narayan, Matt Bauder, Kyle Bruckmann, Chris Cogburn, James Coleman, Tim Feeney, Brent Gutzeit, Bonnie Jones, Jason Kahn, Mazen Kerbaj, Matt Mitchell, Toshimaru Nakamura, Pauline Oliveros, Bhob Rainey, Vic Rawlings, Christine Sehnaoui, Mike Shiflet, Jason Soliday, Howard Stelzer, Christian Weber, Matt Weston, Jack Wright, Jason Zeh, and many others.
JMY81
Limited edition of 200 CDR in digipak
credits
released April 1, 2022
Jesse Kudler: guitar, electronics, radios, tapes
Graham Stephenson: amplified trumpet
Recorded and mixed by Jesse Kudler
Photo by Graham Stephenson
Mastered by Bill Harris