pavel milyakov & bendik giske: s/t

Absolute killer gear from techno mutant Pavel Milyakov (Buttechno) and explorative sax player Bendik Giske, the first release on Smalltown Supersound's highly promising new offside jazz label, Le Jazz Non Series. If yr into owt from Colin Stetson to Beatrice Dillon to Lynch/Badalementi or Alex Zhang Hungtai’s work as Love Theme - this is a must. Milyakov & Giske are both strongly regarded in their respective scenes - Milyakov for his dare-to-be-different techno, and Giske for a remarkable debut LP ’Surrender’ and collaborations/interactions with Caterina Barbieri, Laurel Halo and many, many others - and their pairing here provides a burningly intense form of hybrid electro-jazz that feels vitally restless and searching. Produced remotely over the course of 12 months between Berlin and Moscow, the album’s seven pieces portray the duo at an early crest of their collaborative, creative powers, revelling in the thrill of invention and innovation with Giske’s physical, improvised prowess matched for fleeting unpredictability by Milyakov’s bespoke modular systems. The results are tangibly brittle but in an immersive, world-building fashion that speaks to the openness and mutuality of their visions, trimming any excess fat and never testing attention spans, they move in quick steps between searingly emotive bursts of energy and naggingly rhythmic jags, skipping from peaks of breathtaking flightiness to cavernous skronk and ghost-in-the-machine divinations with elemental logic and dexterity. Mehr, Bitte.