Tigersmilk

Tigersmilk is a trio of two Chicago musicians, Rob Mazurek on cornet and laptop electronics and Jason Roebke on acoustic bass, and, from Vancouver, drummer Dylan Van Der Schyff. In the indie-rock zone, Mazurek is best-known orbiting around the Tortoise/Isotope 217 camps, but From the Bottle is far from the post-rock/ambient crypto-funk-jazz vein of those bands. This platter consists of six untitled improvisations contrasting open-ended, turbulent blowouts with restless, hushed passages. There's none of the usual theme/solos/theme format present in most jazz and rock -- Tigersmilk instead lays emphasis on the subtleties of improvised group interplay. Mazurek's plaintive, cracked, parched, and occasionally vocalized tone recalls somewhat the late Don Cherry (of the watershed '50s/early-'60s Ornette Coleman Quartet), while Roebke draws forth moaning, cello-like sonorities from his upright and Van Der Schyff makes with both whispered dexterity and abrupt detonations. Bottle is recommended for those with a sincere fondness for unfettered sonic events, as personified by the likes of Derek Bailey, Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Sonic Youth in their "experimental" instrumental mode.