There is something a little creepy about an album recorded live at an underground reservoir. What possessed a saxophone quartet (and an audience lurking there too) to venture down the Liepkalnis near Vilnius in the autumn of 2019 is the obvious question. Something to do with the extraordinary acoustics, perhaps. Certainly the record has an extremely arresting sound. Minimalist in nature, actually very soft and velvety, the sound waves slowly curl around the space sometimes providing a gentle wash, sometimes by harsh contrast the sensation of a highly controlled caustic burn that might tear at your ears as a hidden creature from the depths might attempt roaring up alarmingly at you. The Katarsis4 manage to use the space to their advantage and these two long pieces that each have a dramatic background quality to them won me over in the end with their elegiac questing that isn't one bit creepy as it turns out. A more naturalistic endeavour this side of recording inside the belly of a whale you'd be very hard-pushed to track down.
On NoBusiness.
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