Chasms documents an unconventional meeting between two American improvisers-sound artists – Texan, Austin-based Lisa Cameron (aka Venison Whirled) plays on amplified and acoustic percussion, strings, feedback and electronics, and locates resonant frequencies in space to create oscillating overtones, which are then employed as sound sources for live improvisation, and Missouri, St.Louis-based violinist-visual artist Alex Cunningham, who adds various objects to his arsenal and also did the cover art.

Cameron and Cunningham recorded before in a trio with master double bass player Damon Smith (Dawn Throws Its Knife, Balance Point Acoustics, 2020, and Time Without Hours, Storm Cellar, 2022). Cameron collaborated before with Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and experimental guitarists Ernesto Diaz-Infante and Sandy Ewen. Cunningham Plays with Smith in other outfits and has recorded with sax player Patrick Shiroishi and guitarist Jessica Ackerley.

Cameron and Cunningham push their instruments to the most extreme sonic terrains with generous doses of tension and friction and never subscribe to familiar or predictable dynamics. But, surprisingly, throughout this nervous and adventurous searching journey, they suggest intimate and nuanced yet intense and dense conversations, though quite subversive, noisy and cacophonic ones. The listener, and most likely also Cameron and Cunningham, can never guess where they are heading or what inventive sonic tricks and spells they will pull. They surrender to the harsh and challenging sonic collisions and assaults and their inherent, resonant energy and simply roll with the waves of the three «Chasms». The «First Chasm» is the wildest one; the «Second Chasm» offers the most claustrophobic, resonant side of this resourceful duo, and the «Third Chasm» introduces a playful, mysterious dimension to the dynamics of the duo with a few strange melodies.

Eyal Hareuveni

Lisa Cameron (drums, percussion, feedback, bowed cymbals, electronics), Alex Cunningham (violin, objects)