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Glinkowski Slaton Sparacino: Trio Slicnaton
Slicnaton Publishing

Glinkowski Slaton Sparacino: doesn't quite roll off the tongue, does it? Thankfully the adventurous music the electro-acoustic trio produces is a whole lot less awkward. Trio Slicnaton culls material from four early-2008 live performances (presumably small, intimate spaces, judging by names like The Royal Bean Coffee House and Badgerhaus Pi Party) by Mietek Glinkowski (vitar, violin, electronics), Julian Sparacino ( flute, bass clarinet, piano) and Nicholas Slaton (electronics, basses). On paper, it's the bassist's gig with Slaton composing and arranging the pieces but in practice he's one contributor of three, and it's their explorative interaction that makes or breaks the material. What gives the trio's music added heft is that the composed melodies played by the violin and woodwind are sampled and looped in real-time, with the outcome a dense multi-layered mass of percolating detail (the flute and violin are heard in their pure form at the start of “Nightlife,” for example, but once the sampling and looping set in the instruments transform into a much more complex mass). The group pushes the concept to the extreme in “Boxcar” where a bee-hive of tumultuous activity—whorls of blurry noise, whirrs, washes—becomes an exercise in electronic sound design, given that whatever acoustic instruments are involved are rendered unrecognizable by the manipulations. The recording includes duo (“All in Time” pairs whirring electronic ambiance with the deep croak of the bass clarinet) but more often than not trio settings featuring violin and woodwind cross-currents and rumbling electronic undercurrents. Sitting in on two pieces, drummer Jon-Marc Ryan Dale and percussionist Andrew Munger blend seamlessly into the trio's sonic mass in “ Cape Craft ” while cymbal flourishes and Glinkowski's “vitar” are audible during “Beans.” One final positive note: at thirty-nine minutes, Trio Slicnaton also doesn't overstay its welcome.

September 2008