Ian Boddy & Markus Reuter – Dervish

2 reviews for Ian Boddy & Markus Reuter – Dervish

1. 

   Matt Howarth / Sonic Curiosity – 2022-11-22

   This release from 2009 offers 52 minutes of experimental tension.
   Reuter plays touch guitars and electronics. Boddy plays programming, sampler, and synthesizers. Joining them on a few tracks are: King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto (on traps and buttons), Ulrich Pollmann (on recorders), SiRenee (on voice), and a string quartet comprised of Karina Bellmann and Uta Maria Lempert (on violins), Wiebke Tschpe (on viola), and Juliane Gilbert (on cello).
   This release offers a surprisingly aggressive outing for this duo, whose previous work (separately and together) have tended to be dreamy-to-ambient. Here, the music is hard-edged and full of cerebral teeth. With the searing guitar complexity and intensity going on, comparisons to King Crimson are unavoidable.

   In the first track, Reuters nimble-fingers fly up and down the guitar fret, belting out sinuous chords of contrasting-yet-melodic ferocity. Crisp e-beats abound, establishing snappy rhythms that engage in whimsically variant time signatures. Versatile electronics chitter at the edges, striving to keep up with the brisk pace of everything. A sudden string passage occurs, bringing about a passively moody conclusion.
   Next, hesitant notes pitter at each other, generating a tension that is dogged by longhair woodwinds. The piece achieves a sideways escalation as the pittering slides into a stretch of sneaky diversions.
   The next track begins with airy brooding that takes on sidereal enhancement with faint-yet-contentious percussives. A swelling of ominous proportion creeps in, darkening the mix with imminent danger. Anxiety increases as the various elements strain just shy of squealing.
   In the fourth piece, a rock motif is held just out of reach as guitar and drums indulge in a gritty ballet, while electronics inject mysterious airs in tandem with the string quartet. The quirky melody strives for release but is held in an alluring stasis of unrequited unease.
   Next, glitchy sounds burble in a textural pool, while languid guitar chords are elongated into melancholic sustains. A guttural pulsation establishes a poignant heartbeat, marking a progression through this field of piercing glimmers, ultimately reaching a haunting exit strategy.
   Then, angst is explored with twittering glitches and freeform drum impacts. The guitar enters with stern advice, which is promptly advocated by the string quartet. An urgency grows as the instruments strive to convince the listener to cast off desolation.In the final piece, atmospheric palpitations swarm, punctuated by dreamy guitar stylings. An edgy ambience is achieved, then violated with shrill notes that evolve into endearing sustain chords capable of searing the paint off metal. A reprise of moody vapors is experienced, evoking desperate aspirations of ascension as the textural medium becomes populated by divine glimmers, culminating in a winsome epiphany.

   A wildly entertaining album, no matter what your expectations might have been.

   2009. Matt Howarth / Sonic Curiosity

2. 

   Phil Derby / Electroambient Space – 2022-11-22

   Early on you can tell that Dervish is a little different, even for Ian Boddys adventurous label. Teaming up with Markus Reuter, Boddy has created an edgy but fun album with percolating percussion, crisp electronics, and energy to spare.

   The title track jumps right in with a brisk if quirky beat. It seems a bit scattered, but in a very intentional way. It is freeform jazz infused electronica with bite. The energy drops off abruptly near the end, meandering softly for the last minute and a half.
   Boddy often likes changing the energy level from track to track, and Stealth” definitely brings a softer touch