CD composed of two live performances in May 2007, Belgium (Gent and Brussels), in which the sextet
plays four composed pieces by four of the members (Kesten, track 1; Malfatti, track 3; Sugimoto,
track 4; Capece; track 5) and an improvised piece (relatively louder and busier than the other
ones). The second half of Capece's piece includes extracts of Guy Debord's text "The Society of
Spectacle" handed out by Capece or Kesten (not sure) to be read by the members of the public.
The ending didn't felt tacked on - it comes out almost as a necessary deconstruction as a
ritualistic quality, as Brian Olewnick points out, does strike me in most of the album. I guess
the title, "Wedding Ceremony", did influence my reading, but doesn't that happen a lot with these
abstract improv albums with figurative titles?
Anyway, the performers avoid being harsh, monotonous or too quiet (I don't get the lowercase jokes
in this case). There's always something going on and the end results stand on their own. This is
the first time I'm hearing an album with Kesten on it, so I hardly realized when (if) does he
"sing". But I'll probably come back to this one, it's worth the effort.
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