Bricolage by The Westerlies & Conrad Tao

The Westerlies and Conrad Tao present Bricolage, an album of improvisations and experiments recorded in a small cabin in rural New Hampshire in June 2019. True to the definition of the title, the music finds its form in the unscripted conversation of the instruments and imaginations at hand, revealing new sonic worlds to both performers and listeners alike.

For two weeks, the collaboration between The Westerlies and Tao came to life as they embarked on a daily practice of improvisation, pairing brass and keyboard with digital processing and extended techniques, and eluding genre and expectations in the process. Tao’s boundless dynamism shines as both a fearless performer and spontaneous composer, while The Westerlies subvert the natural timbres and tendencies of their instruments to unearth new sonic terrain and compositional cohesion as one.

Bricolage features nine pieces drawn from the session tapes, humbly captured with a few microphones and minimal editing. Amidst the chirping birds of rural New Hampshire and creaky cabin floors, a musical narrative is woven in patient but deliberate fashion, encapsulating what is at the core of this album: an exploration of beauty in its raw, messy, and unvarnished state. At its core stands a work entitled “just so long and long enough,” recalling the words of the E.E. Cummings poem [as freedom is a breakfastfood].

Bricolage creates its own language in the ebb and flow of group harmony with dissonance, and conversational concurrence with discord. This collection of pieces was created and captured in the moment like lightning in a bottle and conjures the collective imagination of this new collaboration that is greater than the sum of its parts.

“folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous.” - NPR

"Chamber music with bracing melodies and, crucially, an undeniable sense of fun." - L.A. Times

westerliesmusic.com
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube