QUAKE

Chris Cutler and Thomas Dimuzio

RéR Megacorp
1999
CD

PLAY TRACK

TRACKS

When Cracks Appear

Percolation/Floating Plates
Do Not Drink
Rain Through Leaves
State Of The Nation
Dubious Nativity
Behind The Hill
Water Margins
Fossil Footprints
Things Roll Backwards Then
Concentric Rings
Reappearance Of Birds
19 And Counting
Empty House/Coffee Still Warm
Like Paper

Gravity Waves

A Bar A Few Degrees Above Absolute Zero
We Wave Back
Hephaestus
Preparing To Take The Long View

REVIEWS

“... intelligently paced, decidedly atmospheric noise mongering.” — The Wire

“... a wide sonic range, from loud rock rhythms to electro-acoustic drones.” (4 stars) — All Music Guide

“... showcases a remarkable collaboration between two highly accomplished improvising musicians.” — Prog Archives

“... a strangely invigorating disaster soundtrack...” — SF Weekly

The Wire

Last year we saw the welcome reissue on ReR of Headlock (1989), the debut solo album by US electroacoustic composer Thomas Dimuzio, which is hallmarked by his sure handling of an expansive, yet detailed, sonic architecture crafted in the studio. However, Quake finds his samplers and processors feeding off Chris Cutler's percussion ('electrified' and otherwise) and sundry objects in two live improvised performances from March this year. Both events have been subdivided into numerous short, titled tracks, though in many cases the music appears to be continuous. Given the vampiric nature of the process, authorship of sounds is not always easily attributable, but the general impressions of Cutler's abrasive percussives, and gritty electronics supplying the microsonic detail, with Dimuzio expanding these textures and unleashing his own ominous stormcloud drones. The result is intelligently paced, decidedly atmospheric noise mongering. —Chris Blackford

All Music Guide

Chris Cutler was the drummer in the classic art rock Henry Cow, and he has released a number of improv duets with various partners over the last decade, including Cow guitarist Fred Frith and electric harpist Zeena Parkins. Thomas Dimuzio is an electro-acoustic composer, whose noisy drone work Headlock has been recently reissued by ReR. All of Cutler's improv duets involve not only the traditional instruments (drums, guitar, harp) but lots of noisemakers and treatments as well. This release takes selections of two concerts Dimuzio and Cutler recorded in New England in March 1999, and the two are very well suited. The two musicians listen closely to each other, which is essential for this kind of music. Cutler's percussion is treated real-time by Dimuzio's processing, and the results display a wide sonic range, from loud rock rhythms to electro-acoustic drones. (4 stars) —Caleb Deupree

Prog Archives

Chris Cutler and experimental electronic musician Thomas Dimuzio (who has played with 5UU's among others) first worked together in 1994, and since then they have worked sporadically as a duo. This album was recorded at two live events in 1999, and showcases a remarkable collaboration between two highly accomplished improvising musicians. Chris Cutler uses pick ups, contact microphones and effects pedals in his electric drumkit, and is able to produce a surprising variety of sounds and textures, as can be heard on his album 'Solo'. Thomas Dimuzio uses his sampler to manipulate Cutler's performance in real time, and also uses short wave radio and CD sources to add to the mix. This is music which is informed as much by contemporary electro-acoustic practice as it is by rock, and it is full of unexpected sounds and surprises. For most of the album's playing time it's difficult to believe that a drum kit was used at all, although when it does make its presence felt (such as part 4 of When Cracks Appear) it does so to thunderous effect. If it were possible to record continental plates shifting or mountains forming, this is what they would sound like; vast, stately and moving at their own pace with inexorable force. Unlike a lot of contemporary electronic music this is not based around endless drones, but constantly shifts and changes as the two players react to each other. It's also crammed full of detail and repays repeated and careful listening.

Thomas Dimuzio belongs to that select group of musicians who use the sampler as an instrument in its own right, and has expanded the boundaries of what is possible in a live performance. Chris Cutler is a perfect musical foil for him, and between them they create music which has few precedents and is truly innovative. This is particularly recommended to fans of more adventurous electronic music, but anybody with a taste for the adventurous and experimental should hear this. (4 stars) —Syzygy

SF Weekly

Adventurers who swim with sharks in the turbulent waters off Stinson Beach and then catch The Deep Blue Sea at the local multiplex are the same freaks you'll likely find at this rare concert appearance by veteran noise-sculptors Chris Cutler and Thomas Dimuzio. The show celebrates the CD release of Quake (issued on ReR Megacorp), a strangely invigorating disaster soundtrack, whose joke will not be lost on fault-line audiences here in the Bay Area.

Recorded at East Coast performances earlier this year, the sounds have been organized as an 18-part, two-section suite - "When Cracks Appear" and "Gravity Waves" - using samplers, tape loops and processors (Dimuzio) and drums, metallic percussion and "low-grade electronics" (Cutler). The music produces an adrenaline rush that evokes thoughts of surfing with great whites or surviving the latest megatemblor: Its haunting vibrations set off convulsive bursts in the synapses.

But Cutler and Dimuzio are highly efficient, even sympathetic, experimentalist-composers. They don't pummel listeners with relentless ear-bursting drama or self-indulgent tirades in the upper painful register, like too many noise craftsmen. That's not to say that they're never rambunctious or loud - they are - but they know how to balance the machine-generated roar with deep rhythmic pulsations and subterranean rumbles that somehow seem a comfort after the industrial hammer crashes down. And it's these calculated aftershocks, as it were, that sustain the absurd thrill of the ride. —Sam Prestianni