Artists: Nancy and Bertram Turetzky
Album: Music for Flute(s) and Contrabass, 1
Label: Nine Winds

Husband and wife acoustic bass and flute duo, who play modern, often improvised music. Very abstract, often with extended technique. Do they have conversations like: “What do you want to do tonight, honey? Maybe improvise on a few tone rows?” “Oh I don’t know…There’s a new Simpsons on at 8:00 I want to see.” Anyway, there’s some cool stuff here. I liked 3 and 9 best.

1) Chirpy, random flute and growling bass. Spare flute solo w/ semitones. Later, a brief burst of activity, long silent pauses.
2) Influenced by Japanese court music. Not very serene, though. Lots of flutter tongue, and some playful call and response.
3) Playful. Low alto flute, busy, quiet bass. A pretty mysterious flute solo, and lots of bass glissando and overtones. Recommended.
4) Titled “Rated X v.1”. Quiet intro. More pseudo-Asian stuff, but engaging, with remote flute and wind sounds. Often quite spare. Sadly, no booty bass.
5) Opening is similar to previous abstract tracks, but develops a melody later on. Nice primordial bass.
6) Cute. Half coy, half frenetic. Develops, abandons snips of melody.
7) Oppositional flute/bass, often seemly at cross purposes, then suddenly aligned.
8) Lots of flutter tonguing, and fragments of melody.
9) Similar to 6, but better. Some howling and yelling in background.
10) Delicate and capricious flute, grumpy bass. Gets riled briefly, then fades out.

Alex D.