Pitchfork

Amorphic Winged is yet another avant-electronic-jazz project from tireless improviser Rob Mazurek. The contents are, without question, less structured than anything we've heard from Isotope 217 or any of Mazurek's Chicago Underground projects. They are also, for better or for worse, befitting of the term "ambient." These works, like many moments or Chicago Underground releases, fall very easily into the background. They stand out enough to vaguely alter the mood of a room, but dynamically, they're mostly too static to ever really grab your attention. Unlike the Chicago Underground projects which are known to wander from noise to jazz, and ambient to funky in the period of one ten minute song, this disc stakes its claim firmly in ambient territory, and stays there.

At its best, solo improvisation can be an amazing display of a brilliant mind at work-- as Fred Frith put it, "a continuous dialogue with the unexpected." At its worst, it can leave an otherwise able musician devoid of any structure or ideas. Well aware of the nature of this two-faced beast, Mazurek has recruited a bunch of the usual suspects to, y'know, hang around the studio and do stuff. The Sea and Cake's Sam Prekop lends some lazy guitar pickings to "Time Coded Single," while Mazurek noodles about with a piano. Isotope 217's Matthew Lux creates a backdrop of noise for Mazurek's signature cornet sound on "Strange Logics."

"The Shaping Light" features a Chicago scenester sextet which includes Ken Brown, John Herndon and Casey Rice. Mazurek's cornet dominates the first few minutes, though soon all that's left is post-delay residue that swirls gently around Tania Bower's vocals. She never sings anything in particular, but her voice is lush enough that it much doesn't matter-- at least not until it too falls under the control of that conniving laptop. Soon, glitched-out vocal chunks are fitting themselves into chopped up horn, Lux's bass, and orgar before Mazurek and his pure, unaffected horn take the fore once again.

Elsewhere, the guest contributions are minimal, if not indistinguishable. Most of the sounds on Amorphic Winged come from Mazurek and his laptop. This is the second solo album from Rob and his laptop in the last year, the first being a minimal laptop-only musique concréte project on Drag City entitled Orton Socket. Winged Amorphic sees Mazurek attempting to marry the weird clicks and pops of that album with the sound he's generally known for.

As such, the computer plays a larger role here than on most of his records. Most of the pieces on Amorphic Winged consist largely of cornet, piano or other such familiar noises being run through patches and effects. "Steel Cut Oak" is built around a recording of a piano playing backwards (cool at first, though after nearly twenty minutes, it gets old). "Clouded Rooms" is a short number that might as well be called "If I Fuck With It Enough, You Won't Be Able to Tell What Sound Source I'm Using." (It's more fun than it sounds.)

If any of this sounds familiar, it's probably because a lot of these are essentially the same approaches and techniques Mazurek has beer sprinkling throughout most of his recent work. This isn't a bad thing, per se; much like the Chicago Underground Duo's most recent outing, Amorphic Winged is easy on the ears from start to finish. The problem is that, at times, it may be a bit too easy. So much of this album is like the calm-before-the-storm dynamic of a Chicago Underground piece, that I often find myself waiting for a dramatic climax that never comes.

Mazurek's greatest strength is often the patience and understanding he has toward other musicians. It makes sense: some friends stopped by, but they didn't stay too long, leaving Mazurek's sound to float this way and that, without much to hang onto. Still, if you're into the Chicago jazz sound and the stuff-running-through-computer-patches sound, you'll probably find something to like here.