The Smudges - Song and Call (Cryptogramophone)

Cryptogramophone founder Jeff Gauthier has presented a wide variety of improvisational instrumental music over the decades since he founded his label, often of an experimental nature. He extends that umbrella to his own music with the Smudges, a duo consisting of his wife Maggie Parkins (sister of maverick composer/harpist Zeena) on cello and himself on violin. The happy couple both embrace and defy jazz and classical music traditions on their debut album Song and Call, pretty much ignoring where the border of one genre ends and another begins. Check out “Matter of Time,” which begins with electronic chaos before Parkins and Gauthier run headlong into each other’s presence – like a pair of modern dancers, they express themselves individually but in sync, ending with massed harmonies like a string quartet with its ensemble bisected. Gauthier compositions like “Palindromes (For Bobby)” and “The Gigue is Up” allow the players to lean into their melodic sides while still pushing their own boundaries, while “Blitva” and the lovely “Kasha’s Lament” let the pair compose spontaneously. The title track finds the duo improvising around a slowed-down sample of a bird call, finding an incredible amount of nuanced sonic choices in such a basic source. On Song and Call, the Smudges make it easy to ignore labels and just luxuriate in the sounds of the strings.