Marginal Consort

A member of the non-idiomatic school of improvisation, Japanese musician Kazuo Imai is equally comfortable behind the guitar, the viola da gamba or a tabletop loaded with an assortment of sonorous objects. Although his jazz trio pit Imai's guitar heroics against a pair of young electronic musicians, playing in a relatively traditional style, Marginal Consort (the improvisatory collective of which he's a member) utilize very few predetermined parameters in their performances. The group perform once a year, and the start and end times of their sets are the only fixed elements. This massive quadruple-LP documents a three-hour Marginal Consort gig, in which the collective pour a syrupy sonic brew from their equipment. The sound ebbs and flows throughout the length of the performance, at times building to a substantial roar, while at others dissolving into a low rumble. The sheer immensity of this set is almost overwhelming; Imai and company are master craftsmen who have transformed pure sound into an ornate, monolithic construct.