Susan Alcorn & Phillip Greenlief: Prism Mirror Lens

Editor's Choice

Rating: ★★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Susan Alcorn (pedal-steel)
Phillip Greenlief (ts, cl)

February/2020

Media Format:

LP/CD

Catalogue Number:

VG+ 002

RecordDate:

May 2017

What a delectable dance of dappled textures. Baltimore-based pedal-steel player Susan Alcorn has garnered a deserved reputation for just this kind of country-cum-classical improvisational hopscotching, most recently hooking up with serious post-jazz composers Mary Halvorson and Nate Wooley. Here, with veteran Bay Area reedsman Phillip Greenlief, she alternates across four roomy tracks between frenetic skittering and diaphanous swoons, hinting at refinements of melody with a simpatico partner equally accustomed to the ‘deep listening’ revelations of Pauline Oliveros. Together this consummate pair proceed to unravel a poignant study in pointillist sensitivity and embalming micro-drone, drawing listeners in, bringing to attention their distinctive music’s vivid blooms of blossoming timbre and meditative tone. Prism Mirror Lens is one hush-hush conversation absolutely deserving to be more widely heard.

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