Baby-faced drum demon Chris Corsano has dropped some scorching duets with
fire-breathing saxophonists like Paul Flaherty and Wally Shoup, but this team
up with the young Danish altoist Mette Rasmussen inhabits more liminal
territory. It’s certainly not short of abrasive tones and pulsing kick drum
action, but both Rasmussen and Corsano temper their attack with a strong sense
of dynamics and texture. You may have heard Rasmussen with Mats Gustafsson’s
Fire! Orchestra. Her playing taps into the European free music continuum, with
strong echoes of the American post-bop tradition. She moves from searing arcs
of pinched tone and puckering reed effects to lyrical melodic flourishes, all
the while maintaining a strong individual identity. Corsano is famed for his
use of objects and extended techniques, but here he limits himself to sticks
and drums, moving freely around the kit as Rasmussen provides the centrifugal
force. A great duo set, with bonus points for such absurdist track titles as
the cosmo-domestic Whitmanism of ‘Oh Space Heater! My Space Heater’.