by John Sharpe:

Iluso Records founders guitarist Álvaro Domene and drummer Mike Caratti may live on different sides of the globe, but that doesn’t stop them getting together to make music on a regular basis, with the fruits of their collaborations released in short order on the label. On Expressed by the Circumference they are joined by multi-instrumentalist and Downtown sage Elliott Sharp. As well as electric guitar, he’s billed as playing electro-acoustic bass clarinet, though the emphasis falls firmly on the first part of that compound word.

Although the program includes three compositions, their freshness means that they sit comfortably alongside the six more discursive improvisations. Caratti’s drifting dirge-like title track soon opens up into animated sparring between Sharp and Domene, underpinned by tappy percussive coloration. Domene’s “Civil Tongue” and “Uncivil Tongue” intermittently reveal a skeletal framework, forged from a loping guitar and drum groove, round which Sharp circles like a moth drawn to a flame. For those who take pleasure in discerning intent amid seeming chaos (and that includes most free improv fans, right?) Domene often anchors the collectives with repeated motifs like the bottom-end figure on “Toad Style Blues”, which utilizes the range of his seven-string guitar.

Although Sharp’s name comes first on the sleeve, it’s unequivocally a group endeavor, with ensemble interaction paramount. The closest they get to a solo is when Domene emerges all guns blazing from the violet-tinged haze at the finale of jittery “Mr. Magnolia”. With the electronic manipulations, bass clarinet often sonically resembles a guitar, although at times the origins of particular sounds are only just distinguishable around the fraying edges of its phrases. It’s not until “In Your Head”, murmuring in dialogue with restless percussion, that the woodwind comes through in its unmodified state. But whatever instrument Sharp wields they hit on a winning tactic by adopting contrasting registers, exemplified during the bristling exchanges on “Morphinomania”.