Pedal

Given the Staubgold label's interest in electronic music on the general calmer tip, it's almost no surprise to hear something like Pedal's debut album on it — where there are no electronics involved beyond the means used to record the duo's work. Instead, what Chris Abrahams and Simon James Phillips create are piano duets, seven total recorded at an Australian university hall, which probably would not have caused anyone to bat an eye if it had appeared on, say, ECM. In the context of Staubgold it's an intriguing contrast, but of course the key point is whether or not the recording works in its own right — and it does, happily. The precedents for the work of Pedal — a contextually sly choice of name, given the instruments used by the two performers — can be heard in everyone from Erik Satie to Arvo Pärt, a seeking to use the piano to move beyond its immediate and obvious classical employment, while at the same time well aware of the past and not simply a torpedoing of it. If a song like "Performance" can begin with a few calm notes that Beethoven would not have been surprised at, the addition of a more skittering series of them from the second piano would have pleased John Cage in turn. Though the notes do not make clear if the performances are improvisations, or if they were recorded fully live, the latter is a reasonable assumption to make, and Abrahams and Phillips sound utterly comfortable with each other, either obsessively matching each other's lines in close proximity, as on the quarter-hour-long "The Afterwards," or each playing against the other in subtle but clear fashion, as noted earlier. It's a fine listen overall — and titling one effort "Herzog" serves as a nice calling card should that filmmaker be considering further soundtrack contributors.