Experimental, improvisatory music is not for the faint of heart. It can challenge your listening skills, disorient your aural sensibilities, and disassemble known sonic architectures, taking you far away from dominant tonalities and song structures into uncharted, open waters.
But that’s the point.
Experimental, improvisatory music explores new horizons, offering renewed modalities, investigational sounds and structures, and the excitement of live performance, giving being to something that was not in existence until it’s performance. Experimental, improvisatory music is birthed in front of you.
And like any birth, it can be anarchic, but beautiful.
This was true of the recent improvisatory concert performed by the Chacon/Nakatani/Santistevan Trio held at the Fusion Performance Arts space in Downtown Albuquerque.
Chacon/Nakatani/Santistevan Trio. Photo by Brian C. Nixon
Consisting of Pulitzer-winning composer Raven Chacon on guitar and effects, Carlos Santistevan on bass and effects, and Tatsuya Nakatani on drums and percussion, the trio took listeners on a sound sojourn.
Carlos Santistevan. Photo by Brian C. Nixon
I touched base with Chacon before the performance. As usual, he was bursting with ideas and creative insight, telling me about future works. I also met Nakatani, who let me know he moved to New Mexico roughly nine years ago, living in a small community in the south-central part of the state, but is mostly on the road performing. And Santistevan gave me insight into the trio's first recording, Inhale/Exhale.
Tatsuya Nakatani. Photo by Brian C. Nixon
Concerning Inhale/Exhale, the Bandcamp explanation liner notes state, “In October of 2020, Baltimore’s High Zero festival asked curators around the country to assemble improvisers in their regions for a streaming edition of the festival. Santa Fe bassist Carlos Santistevan put together a group of New Mexico players…The performance marked their first encounter as a trio and took place in San Miguel Chapel—the oldest chapel in the United States.”
The first performance of the trio was during Covid. The Fusion performance was mask-free. But what both performances held in common was an ethereal, moving experience.
Discussing the trio's conception before the Fusion performance Santistevan states, “I put on a festival in New Mexico called High Mayhem Festival. During Covid [High Zero] asked me if I’d put together a New Mexico night…In my mind I asked who do I want to represent New Mexico? The trio with Raven and Tatsuaya popped up. So, we rented out San Miguel Chapel, the oldest church in the United States, and we did a four-camera recording session in a day. We produced videos that became a part of the virtual High Zero festival. Since then, our trio manages to get together to play—maybe two to four times a year—and tonight is another chance for us to make this intersection.”
A stimulating, sonically satisfying, and stirring intersection it was!
The trio plans to release the recording via multiple outlets. To learn more, go to Other Minds Records, found here: https://othermindsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/inhale-exhale.
Brian C. Nixon, Ph.D., is Chief Academic Officer and professor at Veritas International University in Albuquerque. As a writer, musician, and artist, his interests surround the philosophical transcendentals: truth, beauty, and goodness. You can contact Brian via his Bandcamp email address: https://briancharlesnixon.bandcamp.com
