Mark Dresser's "Tines of Change"

There are a lot of reasons for an artist to make a recording: to document a composition, a collaboration, or a change in their method/process, to name a few. On Tines of Change (that's "tines" with an "n," not an "m"), out May 5 on Pyroclastic, bassist-composer Mark Dresser documents a change in his instrument. 

Dresser's cited influences include the sonic explorer Jimi Hendrix as well as bass virtuosi Charles Mingus and Bertram Turetzky. Last heard from here with a couple of politically-themed septet albums for Clean Feed, he's probably best known for his work in Anthony Braxton's great late-'80s quartet. On this new release, he showcases new instruments custom built for him by Colorado-based luthier-bassist Kent McLagan, whose innovative designs were previously heard on the solo Dresser recordings UNVEIL (2005) and GUTS: Bass Explorations, Investigations & Explanations (2010). 

On Tines of Change, Dresser plays 4 and 5-string McLagan basses that feature pickups embedded in the neck to accentuate different frequencies, and an attachment holding a set of metal tines that can be plucked or bowed. On one track, he also uses a bow built by New Mexico-based percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani. The modifications McLagan made to Dresser's instruments expand and extend the tonal and textural palette available to the player, which engineer Alexandria Smith's recording captures superbly, rendering the sound of friction, reverberation, overtones, attack and decay on metal and wood with exceptional clarity. The result is an extreme-closeup view of the physicality of music making, and the multiplicity of sounds a gifted bassist can elicit from an instrument so modified.