Jazz cellist Levin with drummer began this avant evening. Levin attacked his cello from all sides like a sumo wrestler. Speedy bowed fills gave way to cacaphony as if Levin were drowning a cat. His intensity of movement was mesmerizing, using his bow to scrape the C-9 stage floor or "play" the metal post that holds up the cello. Alternating between beautiful sounds that most of us associate with the cello, and skronking noises that sounded like a squirrel trapped in a weber grill, Levin was truly in a zone. At one point, when the bow shredded, Levin stopped and pulled at the frayed hair with a look of disgust at the wimpy bow.
Electronhic was the musical outpouring of Bob Gorry's New Haven Improvisers Collective (NHIC). Bob on guitar and theremin, Jeff Cedrone on guitar and keys, Chapman stick ( a bass-type instrument that looked like a standup cribbage board with strings), drums and sax. They started the evening with a "cover" of an Alice Coltrane song. The improvising interplay between this crew was visible, a democratic swooping and diving of sounds that dissolved as soon as it came together. All of these musicians have chops, and it must be fun to let loose in a controllled uncontrolled setting. The highlight came when the sax player switched to Great Bass Recorder which looked like a table leg fixed with a hookah mouthpiece which gave a full bodied sound.
