husk

Tropos
Aaron Edgcomb (drums/composition)
Phillip Golub (piano)
Ledah Finck (violin)
Yuma Uesaka (clarinet)

‘husk’ is a piece written for improvising chamber collective Tropos. The bulk of the tune is just six measures long, with two contrasting melodies, a romantic lyrical one, and a rhythmically and sonically atonal one. These melodies are at first contrasted, as exterior and interior, followed by a gorgeously demanding solo from Ledah. I have in the past played the piece as just those six bars, but for Tropos we decided to extend it. After Ledah’s solo we release into a minimal open improvisation, one that is simultaneously empty while being filled with anhedonic ab/pre/sence. This kind of space is something I come back to in my music, it kind of feels like holding your breath underwater and looking around. Phillip then brings in a third melodic structure, a bit of a surfacing. Phillip’s solo over this is energizing but in an uplifting way. Finally, we return to the head material and hear the coalescing of our original themes.