A first time, free-improvised meeting of Chicagoan experimental electronics and noise musician Kevin Drumm, known for his work with extreme noise, and almost silent drones, often influenced by heavy metal as well as free jazz, and Polish, Poznań-based percussionist Adam Gołębiewski, who seeks to expand the sonic possibilities of the drum kit, and who have worked with such innovative improvisers as guitarist Thurston Moore and sax titan Mats Gustafsson. «The Last Minute or Later» was recorded at the LAS club in Poznań on September 2016, later mixed and mastered by fellow noise master Lasse Marhaug.
«The Last Minute or Later» features four pieces. On the first piece «Lightening Up» Drumm and Gołębiewski sound as working on parallel courses. Drumm explores a mysterious, at first a quiet drone but later more distorted and noisier one, while Gołębiewski attempts to charge this piece with brutal tension with his restless, all-over-the-place drumming. «I Can’t Not Lie» suggests another intense and conflictual interplay of fragmented yet threatening electronic sounds and noises and manic scratching the skins and metal surfaces of the drum kit.
The 17-minutes «Fenced Off from Larger Worries» opts for a more nuanced and reserved atmosphere that focuses how the subtle electronics and noises of Drumm extend the rubbing and scratching sounds that Gołębiewski produces from his drum kit, and vice versa. The last piece «Furnace» chooses a different strategy and patiently develops an intense, uncompromising interplay where the noisy electronics clash and collide with the nervous drumming until all explodes in an apocalyptic texture yet surprisingly playful in its own twisted manner.
Not for the weary at heart, still, an interesting sonic adventure.
Eyal Hareuveni
Kevin Drumm (elec), Adam Gołębiewski (dr, perc, objects)