Denton, 2.28.2024

A night out at the "Latex Mittens," as Sarah Ruth Alexander dubbed Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios. This month's edition (number XX, for whom who keeps a record) of the Molten Plains concert series opened with Venezuelan expat electroacoustic duo Monte Espina -- that's Miguel Espinel on percussion, small instruments, and electronics, and Sarah's Molten Plains co-curator Ernesto Montiel on guitar -- in the Rubber Room. The duo was releasing their new cassette, alquimia criolla, and the room was full by the time they started. Listening to the way Espinel's instruments (which on this occasion included the Rubber Room's upright piano along with his usual compliment of percussion implements, violin bow, recorder, and harmonica) responded to his electronic treatments, the phrase that popped into my mind was "tintinnabulation under the volcano" -- shimmering and tinkling over an undertow of dark ambience. When a passing freight train interjected its sounds, they fit right in with what the musicians were doing.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the Houston-based duo of Aisen Caro Chacin and Adam Zaretsky. She's an academic; leads the UT medical prototyping lab and teaches pathology in the medical school. He's a "Wet Lab Art Practitioner." When we walked into the main room, they were seated at a table in front of the stage. He had a laptop, she had a number of implements including what looked like a coffee pot, and some mysterious liquid boiling in a pan on a hotplate. There was back projected video, and Zaretsky was mixing music on his laptop. 

At a certain point, Chacin started dropping cylindrical objects into the "coffee pot," which turned out to be a blender. It being Wednesday night, it occurred to me that maybe she was going to pick the lotto numbers. She pressed a button and grinding noises emanated from the blender, then shards of ice came flying out the top -- ice cubes! (She was wearing eye protection.) Then Zaretsky stood, stretched, and walked over to the blender. He started pouring liquids and powders in and covered the top. Chacin pressed a button and blended the mixture. This process was repeated, then Zaretsky poured the mixture through a strainer into a canister. It began to separate into layers. When I asked him later, he said the mixture included coca leaves, whiskey, and baking soda -- "Kind of like the things you'd mix up when you were a kid." (I did; didn't you?) It was a total Dada event. Afterwards, Monte Espina's Espinel was heard to exclaim, "That was real experimental music!" And Chacin's post mortem take? "It finally worked!" A set full of surprises, and big fun to watch.

Bill Nace is a guitarist from Philadelphia who's collaborated with the likes of Kim Gordon, Susan Alcorn, and Chris Corsano, among others. On this occasion, he played a taishogoto -- a "mutant two-string instrument" he found in a curio shop in L.A.'s Japantown. Manipulated with a keyboard, the instrument was remarkably resonant...and LOUD. Over an underlying drone, Nace played melodic arpeggios that created a hypnotic atmosphere -- like a one man Acid Mothers Temple. When he paused mid-set to lift the instrument and briefly hold it in front of the amplifier, it was notable that the sustaining harmonic feedback never oscillated. Then he returned to the keyboard to bring the set to a satisfying conclusion. Later, Nace said he also has a similar five-stringed instrument but it lacks the taishogato's resonance. While he said that lately his improvs have been getting into melodic areas that are "outside my comfort zone," he finds that having taken a break from guitar for awhile, he's ready to return to his primary instrument. A performance of riveting intensity. 

Last set was a trio of vocalists -- Sarah Jay, Michael Briggs, and Aaron Gonzalez. Briggs, who currently runs Civil Audio and performs with Lorelei K, is a figure who's been central to the Denton music underground for a couple of decades through his involvement in Gutterth Production, Violitionist Sessions, and other entities. One of my first experiences of free improv in North Texas was seeing him perform in Vexed U.K. with Sarah Ruth. In this setting, he electronically manipulated his voice using his laptop while Jay used an array of pedals and Gonzalez extemporized straight through a microphone with no added effects. It was kind of a quintessential Denton set, and a fitting close to a night of intriguing music. Sound tech extraordinaire Aubrey Seaton made sure everyone sounded good.

Molten Plains continues March 10 with a special Sunday evening with peripatetic improvisers Blue Lake (Texas via Copenhagen), Hal Lambert and Mitchell Mobley (Baton Rouge), and Kelby Clark (NOLA), plus a cello duo of Dentonites Kourtney Newton and Brianne Sargent. Then on March 27, Molten Plains XXI will feature Copenhagen-based international quartet Tactical Maybe, Chicagoan Daniel Wyche, Stefan Gonzalez's new band Trio Glossia (joined by guest guitarist Jonathan Horne), and Bitches Set Traps, the feminist improv trio of Sarah Ruth Alexander, Elizabeth McNutt, and Kourtney Newton. All at Latex Mittens, of course.

ADDENDUM: I stand corrected twice. Somehow I had Adam Zaretsky's name as "Duretsky." And Miguel Espinel is responsible for the electronic treatments in Monte Espina. Mea culpa.