Alex Cline, Jeff Gauthier, G.E. Stinson - Right Of Violet (1996)

Here is one of the ultimate American white boy improv records. No academic noodling here, no Euro doublespeak about musical languages and the elasticity of the moment, just out and out tonal and timbral exploration without any goal: "Let's see where we can go." Percussionist Alex Cline has been messing about a lot with the formlessness of tone, and the naturally occurring architecture that timbral experimentation can produce. With violinist Jeff Gauthier and G.E. Stinson's various stringed instruments (like electric guitars tuned all funky, mbiras, and odd sonic elements), one would think listeners had entered the outer sphere of sonic expression. But the music here is quiet and purposeful; it seeks its own level against silence and the other instruments in the fold, not against the music itself. While there are ten tracks listed as dividing moments, none of these could ever be repeated again -- particularly the first half of the 18-minute "An Elegy of Waves," which opens the album. Who could believe that such a subtle, quiet washing of microtones could create such a dense, white-knuckle atmospheric ride? And then there's "Build a Road," which should have been titled "Build a Rocket Ship" for all its striving to do just that. This is stargazing music, not only in its reach, but also as an aesthetic: Where the stars are not attained, they are realized in the internal body of the music created. This is inner-body music, which nourishes the mind as well. This album is made with a collective pure heart, and therefore shines with the quiet power of an ensemble whose members intuitively know themselves and their pursuit only insofar as they are committed to engage it.