ink by Polyorchard

Polyorchard is Jeb Bishop & David Menestres.


Liner Notes by Emily Leon:

I began close listening to ink in the Uwharrie Forest, the smallest of the four National Forests in North Carolina. I was listening to the black metal project Xasthur, and had spent days thinking intensely on the subject of grass and shades of green. Perhaps my listening to this album is more about black metal, herbaceous plants and the visible spectrum than one might think, as it’s impossible for me to divorce the role my environment plays with the way I listen, the phenomenology of space acting upon me. I questioned whether I should listen to this album whilst asleep. I’m still awake.

This album is a work of spirals, a continuous curve traced by a point moving round a fixed point in the same plane while steadily increasing (or diminishing) its distance from this. Bishop’s breath is a key component to the album, an active yet disembodied third player whilst Menestres’ double bass often sounds like tree limbs feeding back on themselves, how we know wind makes itself heard.

As sculptors of sound, listening to these gentlemen might make you wonder what the aroma between two halos smells like, the nonphysical, psychical space where your sensory experience has no bounds. You might hear a phantom door open or the sound of bees. Menestres’ ballooning is akin to the musique concrète of Pierre Henry on “Variations for a Door and a Sigh.” Yet, the album is acoustic with no manipulation or application of audio effect. As it decays, Bishop’s playing in the last track “genesis of the blue cell” becomes a voice. Something has come forth, an emergence. The album cycles and begins with breath in “early blooming parentheses.” The ouroboros eats its tail.


Recorded by David Menestres
Mastered by Andrew Weathers
Recorded live in Bloomington IN, Nashville TN, & Columbus OH April 15-17, 2019

Out & Gone Music 13

Download FLAC for 24/96 audio.



5 star review from Free Jazz Blog:

"one of my must-own recommendations for the year...it demonstrates the breadth of interaction between two talented musicians, each performer pushing themselves and their instruments to occasional extremes. Ink draws its inspiration from free improvisation, visual art, poetry, outsider art, and threads tenuous connections that continuously strengthen and rewrite themselves upon further listening... I was reminded of the great Joseph Jarman and Famadou Don Moye duo album Egwu-Anwu, one of the finest duo albums that likewise showcases silence as something of a shared instrument."

Read the full review: https://www.freejazzblog.org/2020/07/polyorchard-ink-out-gone-music-2020.html

davidmenestres.com