Phillip McNally

Jöelle Léandre’s breathy, rhythmic vocals on [the above review] are among the few moments when a specific and identifiable voice rises out of the 4tet’s group sound. She is indeed one of the treasures of this music scene now, thankfully often recorded, and on [Evident] we get the chance to hear her more distinctly. This is a live duo concert from May 2002 with 9 improvisations for various percussion and bass, with those notable Léandre vocals. Nauseef uses gongs and wood blocks and bowed cymbals and reverberating bells that can sound like electronics, almost anything but the standard drum kit. This allows him to marry his sound to Leandre’s fabulous technique on bass, and he accompanies her vocals with low rumbling and growly percussion, like some sort of metallic bullroarer accompanying birdsong whistles. Though this captures a concert nearly an hour long, I find it easier to hear this music one piece at a time. There is enough in the endless array of sounds available to these two musicians to make you want to pause and let silence reign for a moment while you digest the abstract beauty you’ve just heard. Abstract it is, so maybe not for everyone, but beautiful it is too.

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