Jacken Elswyth & Ryan Eyers – Betwixt & Between 6
Self Released – Out Now
The latest (sixth) release in this series of half-hour cassette tapes curated by and featuring innovatory banjoist Jacken Elswyth adheres to the format of its predecessors in that its content is almost equally divided between Jacken herself and a guest act – in this case, Berlin-based drummer Ryan Eyers. Ryan’s a presenter on the occasional Nok Nok radio show, and organiser of the Lampenfieber reading and performance nights, at which the launch for this very CD was held just over a month ago, in early February.
Jacken first treats us to a 15-minute set that’s both varied and rewardingly configured. It opens with solo clawhammer banjo, on a rendition of Lone Prairie (sourced from the old-time fiddler and folk scholar Jon Bekoff), gradually becomes enveloped by drones building and cascading around its melody line, whose repeating tune is given space to breathe. The drones continue on into, and form a backdrop for, the next piece, a stark rendition of a song, The Caravan, by the Welsh borders singer and song carrier Mark Stevenson. The third track’s a bit of a wild card – three minutes of improvisation for amplified banjo that plays with specific sonic qualities (the metallic ring and sustain of overdrive). Following which, Jacken settles down again into pure acoustic mode for the fourth and final piece, a concise (two-minute) improvisation.
The Ryan Eyers segment of this tape introduces us to some particularly creative (and unshowy) drumming, which turns out to be a strangely complementary foil for Jacken’s own contributions. Ryan’s tracks come in the form of five short solo sketches for solo kit drums. The first piece relies on a pulsing rhythm, which is introduced first on a brushed cymbal than gradually builds both in layering complexity and urgency to attain its throbbing final crescendo. The second piece strips the texture back as it unfolds a set of almost casually-sounding variations that shuffle across on a single repeating five-note figure. In contrast, the third piece then underpins a busy tumbling snare rhythm with repeated bass notes and gentle cymbal splashes, eventually relaxing into the fourth piece; this is characterised by a lazy loping figure that (perhaps deceptively) seems to lack the more highly-driven purpose of its predecessor, an impression reinforced by the way it just seems to drift to its close. The fifth piece brings up the rhythm again on the individual toms, generating a more melodic impetus through its precise tuning. Altogether an intelligent – and intelligently restrained – sequence that gives the lie to the oft-levelled charge that solo drumming is nothing but tuneless crashing and banging.
Like its predecessors, Betwixt & Between 6 is a limited-edition release (a short run of 70 tapes, 20 of which are available directly from Ryan), coming with a hand-printed insert on brown card. This time, the mascot is a manticore (a Persian man-eater, with a human face atop a lion’s body), adapted (conforming with many of the previous Betwixt & Between series creatures) from the manticore featured on the Hereford Mappa Mundi.
Again like all five of the previous Betwixt & Between issues, Betwixt & Between 6 can be ordered from Bandcamp.
www.betwixtbetweentapes.bandcamp.com