Ganesh Anandan & Hans Reichel

The title of this duo improvisation refers to the source of instruments employed. That is, their inventors wield them. Hans Reichel plays the daxophone, an instrument that is in essence a shaped metal blade locked onto a wooden block, vibrated with a bow or plucked, alternately. Ganesh Anandan, a multi-instrumental percussionist, concentrates on his shruti stick and metallophone. The former is a stringed instrument resembling a dulcimer, but prepared to a scale outlined by Harry Partch. The latter is a gamelan-style system of metal bars played with a hammer. The duo's interplay is dynamic and sure-footed, quickly finding rhythms and tones that cooperate to great result. Reichel's daxophone fills in for woodwind phrasing and the human voice equally, with both shrill and diaphragm-rattling waves. Anandan finds resonant tones that unlock paths for melody and rhythm. It is exoticism and interplay at their surprising best.