http://www.vitalweekly.net/1200.html 180o – SUBMENTAL (CD by Splitrec)
With 180o we are in the company of veterans of the Australian improv scene. Flautist Jim Denley is a real pioneer, member of the group Machine for Making Sense. That also counts for Amanda Stewart member of this same group together with Rik Rue, Chris Mann and Stevie Wishart. Collaborations and projects by Stewart and Denley are uncountable. So both are very skilled and experienced musicians. And it is great that they are still performing as this new release proves. 180o is a very recent project, started in August 2018 with Nick Ashwood from Tasmania as a third member. He is a musician of a younger generation. His main focus is “exploring and utilizing the acoustic possibilities of the steel-string acoustic guitar”, what is practised by him on this album. He is based in Sydney and related to the Split Records scene. The three produced an intimate
and sensitive recording of subdued improvisations. Stewart seldom raises her voice, mixing verbal and non-verbal sounds in her performance. Their sound-oriented and stretched-out improvisations are radical but also very organic. Open free-floating improvisations that develop as a constant stream of sounds. They have the voice of Stewart in the centre, embedded in the textures by the wind and string instruments. But it is also the other way around. All three equally contribute in a harmonizing way to the whole. (DM) ––– Address: https://splitrec.com/
AMN Reviews: 180˚ – Submental [Splitrec 29]
Submental is the sui generis creation of the acoustic Australian trio 180 ̊. The group’s configuration is unique: bass flute, played by Jim Denley; acoustic guitar (Nick Ashwood); and the voice and words of Amanda Stewart. The eight pieces on Submental aren’t unconventional art songs, although that certainly would be one way to think of them; rather, they’re dynamic scenarios in which the human voice retains its centrality amidst the musical and non-musical sounds that collide and combine around it. Although the group’s sound is collective, Stewart’s vocal presence can’t help becoming the focus of attention: it’s a human voice saying something, even if what it’s saying is at times a sequence of Dadaesque syllables referring to nothing beyond their own sounds. Stewart, like Denley and Ashwood, has a thorough mastery of extended technique and blends in perfectly with their timbre-driven, texturally centered styles. In some of the music’s truly beautiful moments her whispering naturally harmonizes with Denley’s air notes—a reminder that the flute is really just voice once removed. Here as on his other work, Denley displays a technical sophistication and sensitivity in playing on the border between noise and pitch. No less crucial to the collective sound is the rattle and jangle of Ashwood’s guitar, convincingly likening itself to a detuned zither
http://www.cookylamoo.com/boringlikeadrill/2019/09/parts-180o- dincise.html?fbclid=IwAR0uQwpaCopELlcsGRbLC4Gh0lh4622VlQd3U5ZxNYm9JF6tJhrWFhDWwRQ
Boring Like A Drill. A Blog. Parts: 180o, d’incise
Wednesday 18 September 2019
I’ve been listening to a lot of music released as parts lately. In some cases they are definitely extracted from a larger performance but at other times it’s less clear whether I’m hearing excerpts or separate ‘takes’; either way they depend on editing as much as performance for their musical structure. You wonder what may have been rejected or excised, from either the performance or the session. In this type of recording, there is always a subliminal awareness of a wider context in the background, in a way that doesn’t typically happen while watching a movie, for example.
This popped into my head while listening to a new record out on Splitrec called submental by a group called 180o. I’ve been all over this record just lately because 180o is a trio made up of Nick Ashwood, Jim Denley and Amanda Stewart. Ashwood is new to me but I’ve loved the work of Denley and Stewart for years, both solo and in various groups, particularly as part of legendary ensemble/collective/happening Machine for Making Sense. Here, the eight tracks were recorded over two days, track lengths ranging from thirty seconds to fifteen minutes. Presumably as usual, each piece was improvised with perhaps some loose coordination agreed beforehand, but not necessarily honoured in execution. The three are credited simply with acoustic guitar, bass flute and voice respectively, but there seems to be a hell of a lot going on besides. Bowing and scraping sounds, fluid drones, rattles and pops – is Stewart making that electronic creaking noise herself? I keep listening closer and I’m starting to believe they can actually make these sounds unaided: breath, flute and rubbed strings, struck instruments and oral clicks merge in mysterious ways that build up continually changing, complex aural textures. Stewart’s typically fragmented texts here disappear almost completely into pure sound; all three get deep into the grain of their respective axes, evoking profound expression without ever imposing it. They’re at the top of their game here.
180o | SubmentalSplitrec (CD/DL)
The Australian trio 180o has released Submental its debut album on the Splinter Orchestra’s label. Vocals and horns and tinny percussion all blend well in the contorted concrete music that is Equilateral. Along the way it twitches, slides and sizzles with obtuse noises. It’s a collaged form of minimal modern jazz with a twist (a whisper, and a bang). Secretive pockets turn to discordant strumming on Oblique, a mumbling voice, crestfallen breathes its final air as a textured scratching of the surface is under way.
What could be a pack of riled-up apes is likely the fusion between guitar and flute as the track unravels. Many of the tracks here seem named after various geometric variations on the triangle, perhaps with each musician taking one of its points, stretched and tight, depending. Their approach is unformulated, and distinct in its eccentricities. Submentalfidgets wildly at points, with squiggly refrains (if you can call it that), but along the way there is an uncertain call-and- response approach no matter how short or lengthy the particular track may be (running :37 to 14:57 here). There are moans and stretching sounds like balloons and mouths manipulated (Acute) with varying degrees of control. This makes for a very active listening experience.
If this were playing in a public space there would be a lot of heads turning. The flux is constant, but its not a jumble, more of a collected chaos, with brief melodic passages and plenty of metallic squeaking and other discombobulated effects tossed in to spike and drive the mix. These guys have a lot of breath, that’s for sure. And even the moments in repose are a bit disquieting. A liberating listen from beginning to end.
http://www.nitestylez.de/2019/08/180-submental-splitrec-029.html
180° – Submental [Splitrec. 029] Friday, August 02, 2019
Coming in from the Australian imprint Splitrec. as the labels’ cat.no. 029 only recently was “Submental”, the first ever album by the new trio named 180° which is comprised of Jim Denley, Nick Ashwood and Amanda Stewart. With Denley and Stewart sharing a musical history since the late 80s and Ashwood and Denley connecting over the course of three years before forming the group, 180° utilize their long standing connection as musicians to cook up an intense and most experimental menu of eight tunes which possibly make up the most leftfield, unique, outstanding and threatening release on Splitrec. so far, with prepared guitar and pitched down bass flute providing a vantablack DarkAmbient meets Tribal backdrop for Amanda Stewart’s hypnotic Spoken Word sequences and further rhythmic non-vocalisms which, in their rhythmicity, seem to hark back to the chants of Australia’s aboriginal people at times whilst at others, especially in the deep, minimalist and partly PostRock-reminiscing outing that is “Oblique” even touch one’s innermost soul at a very seductive, intimate note with a velvety tone and quasi-singing approach. Furthermore, cuts like the subsequent “Isosceles” introduce a kind of wistful melancholia alongside a certain form of tender musical romanticism and thrilling, slightly varied rhythmic repetition, “Acute” somewhat seems to describe a mental state on the brink to madness whilst “Degenerate” seems to capture outerdimensional hissings from the deepest, lightless vaults of the ultraworld just to name a few. Recommended, this!
Artist/s: Submental. Amanda Stewart (voice/text), Nick Ashwood (acoustic guitar), Jim Denley (bass flute)Category: Improvisation
Label: Splitrec (splitrec 29)
http://www.splitrec.com
Reviewed by Joseph Cummins
“Sound breath.”
Submental is the trio of Nick Ashwood (acoustic guitar), Jim Denley (bass flute) and Amanda Stewart (voice/text). On180 ̊ these three conjure up eight richly detailed soundscapes. The word ‘breath’ kept coming to mind as I listened to this album. Death rattles, mighty gusts of wind, the scrape of branches on a window, a whispered incantation or an angry declaration, even (ever so briefly) a choir of frogs (!!!), this music seems always to be speaking with streams and strings of air.
I liked how there were times when the listener could feel certain about what was making a particular sound – and certain noises seem only capable of emanating from Denley and Stewart (this is my first encounter with Ashwood) – but at other times this certainty would disappear. It might sound like a nightmare to some, but for an improvising musician
and audience this collective inbetweenness is magical. While only three in number, often it would appear that at least six people (maybe even more) were making these sounds. The listener can almost always hear the apparatus that produces this music – the tongue, mouth, lungs, wire, metal, wood – and perhaps this is something Submental tried hard to emphasize because it seemed like a defining feature of the album. The listener is brought close – at times it seemsvery close – to these three. Listening on headphones sometimes feels like you’re inside the bubbling pot.
With the lack of bass-y instrumentation you’d think there would be a certain predisposition towards mobility in the music created by this trio. But instead of ‘flitting about’ Submental have for the most part chosen to pursue a meditative approach to how to develop their improvisations. This relative stasis does make for some listener fatigue, but, as I struggled with this, I began to realise that such a response is a failure to apprehend the great detail that is constantly on offer here. In fact, there were numerous times when I felt like just one of the voices would have been more than enough to take in. The middle of album lynch-pin Isoceles is just such a moment. All three make contributions that work together, but I felt like I was missing a lot when I was swept up in focusing on what one was doing. It’s an embarrassment of riches.
On the one hand I loved it when all three improvisers played in unison, such as at the start of the second trackEquilateral. But tracks like Oblique, a soundscape at times bathed in a dark silence, shows how well Submental make use of less is more. Stewart leans in and out of the shadows in a way that leaves the listener craning their neck to catch her next fleeting appearance. The harsh beauty of Ashwood’s strumming entry following this episode seems like a golden resonance.
The tracks range in length from 14 minutes to 37 seconds. The mini-track Obtuse is surely an incidental moment between ‘proper’ takes, but it works here. Injecting a moment of (what I interpret as) humour is something I wish more improvisation records would do. It’s a reminder that making music is fun, even if it purports to be ‘serious’ listening music.
I hope this isn’t a one-off release from Submental. Stewart, Denley and Ashwood have real chemistry.
Nick Ashwood 
