{"id":8518,"date":"2024-05-25T15:12:40","date_gmt":"2024-05-25T20:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=8518"},"modified":"2024-05-25T15:46:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T20:46:33","slug":"sobek-berne-burning-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/sobek-berne-burning-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Spontaneous Combustion: A Conversation with Chlo\u00eb Sobek and Tim Berne on ‘Burning Up’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Artists have long written compositions that express emotional depths possible only through music. These songs can bring the listener to tears, cause goosebumps, make them want to move or call them to action. But some of the best music is not so heavily preplanned. For one, Miles Davis\u2019 classic \u201cSo What\u201d (Kind of Blue <\/em>(Columbia, 1959) was an impromptu studio creation. In these cases, creative thinkers living in the moment and responding to one another can create something that scripted notes could not. Chlo\u00eb Sobek and Tim Berne\u2019s Burning Up<\/em>(Relative Pitch, 2024) is in this category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before recording, the two artists had never met. Actually, Berne was even largely unfamiliar with Sobek\u2019s unique instrument, the violone, a Renaissance precursor to the upright bass that is arcane by today’s standards. Her work often incorporates electronics and concepts from musique concr\u00e8te. Of course, alto saxophonist Berne is no stranger to the experimental or pushing music forward in new directions, whether with his own groups like Blood Count or Snakeoil, or collaborations with Julius Hemphill, John Zorn, or David Torn. But the creation of Burning Up<\/em> essentially put both artists in a construct built upon uncertainty. It creates a space in which neither can do anything but respond to one another in the most creative way they can imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results are incendiary. The opener, \u201cScorpius,\u201d starts with Sobek\u2019s skitteringly frenetic hits with a bow and adds staccato fractured lines on Berne\u2019s sax. But it gradually becomes more unified, with long wails on the horn and a gentle but insistent movement on strings. \u201cDisquiet Souls,” at times, sounds like a through-composed – albeit loosely so- piece due to the way both artists create lines that smolder and fuse with one another. But, like the rest of the album, it is not preconceived. Throughout, Burning Up<\/em> is a fascinating musical inferno caused by complete artistic freedom devoid of preconceptions. The music destructively clears through all the existing brush to blaze startlingly new paths. But it is often done to allow new growth to emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PostGenre: When did you first become aware of each other’s music? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tim Berne: As we were recording [laughing]<\/em>. I started checking out Chlo\u00eb’s stuff after [Relative Pitch label owner] Kevin Reilly mentioned it. I think he asked me if I’d want to record with Chlo\u00eb, and then I started checking some of her other stuff out online and decided I would do it. I think the first time we met was the day we recorded. Is that right? <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Chlo\u00eb Sobek: Yeah. It was all very spontaneous. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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TB: Yes, it was. But I liked the spontaneity of it all. I’ve done things like that a few times with Kevin. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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