Polarity 2 is the anticipated follow-up duo album of the innovative and most creative, New York-based free improvisers tenor sax player Ivo Perelman and trumpeter player Nate Wooley, following Polarity (Burning Ambulance, 2021). Polarity 2 features seven duets recorded in Perelman’s favorite recording studio, Park West Studios in Brooklyn, in February 2020. The artwork was done by multidisciplinary artist I.A. Freeman who also did the artwork for Polarity.

The seven untitled duets highlight the immediate, intimate, and deeply communicative rapport that Perelman and Wooley have established. These duets blur the distinction between spontaneous improvisations and instant compositions, charged with a clear, suggestive mood, like the opening, lyrical «One», and delivered with reserved economy. Obviously, Perelman and Wooley explore their idiosyncratic extended breathing techniques, but only in the service of the music, which suggests introspective, reflective and thoughtful dialogs between like-minded musicians.

«Three» even presents Perelman in a melancholic, openly emotional whispery tone, beautifully complemented by the sparse and precise melodic threads of Wooley until both Perelman and Wooley resonate with each other and melt into one restless and highly expressive sonic entity. «Four» offers Perelman first as a vocal artist conversing in an intense and urgent, wordless and dadaist lingo with the ever-inventive Wooley, later keeping alternating from vocals-trumpet to tenor sax-trumpets dense chats, but closing with a lyrical note. The last, playful but still most intimate and lyrical «Seven» closes this cycle of duets and leaves the listener wishing for more of this great stuff.

Eyal Hareuveni 

Ivo Perelman (tenor saxophone, vocals), Nate Wooley (trumpet)