On track: Whirlwind blows away all doubt

By WILLIAM DART

What a pleasure it is to see another long-lost vinyl treasure emerging from the Kiwi-Pacific archive and making the trip to CD land.

Back in 1986, the wildfire improv duo of pianist Jonathan Besser and violinist Chris Prosser produced two ground-breaking LPs which have long been unavailable. They have now been reconstituted into one user-friendly CD, with the admittedly mystifying title of 2 Islands.

This is hyper-energetic stuff, music that can grab you by the scruff of your neck and shake any non-believer into submission. Using whatever style comes into their heads, the two men guarantee to make a willing captive of even the most sceptical listener after just a few minutes.

The opening track, Hungarian Sky, sets the pace: edge-of-the-precipice rhythms and metrical U-turns that leave you wondering just how they could fit so many notes into a little over two minutes.

If Prosser's tone is occasionally on the thin side, it often comes across as a musical tactic, reflecting the violinist's interest in alternative tunings and non-Western tonalities.

In the track Romantic Rite his delicate, reedy line seems to be playing against Besser's lush Debussian piano wash - a nice touch.

If you want full-frontal jazz it's here in the rimu-hard bop of Jaywalking, the scatterbrain R&B of Monkey Monk or the Brubeckian deconstruction of No Tango Today.

There are also more abstract sonic explorations for those with avant-garde leanings. Invention I could be a soundtrack for a forthcoming sequel to The Locals or maybe just a reminder of the good old ghost houses of childhood fairs and fears. The Sea Breathes is an impressionistic flurry of plucked violin and piano while The Dark Wind comes across as a Jewish take on gamelan noir.

Wellington Harbour, the longest track at seven minutes and 22 seconds, is a miniature tone poem and well sustained, a study in shuddering tremolo, delicate double-stopping and lulling keyboards. I couldn't help being reminded of an earlier portrait of the same scene, Larry Pruden's 1954 Harbour Nocturne.

The last track is a whirlwind of fun. Klezmorim reveals Besser revelling in the territory that Aucklanders know him for today. It's a breathless klezmer scramble, the infectiousness of which will leave few listeners seated.

* Besser/Prosser, 2 Islands (Kiwi Pacific SLD 114)