Stephen Altoft & Gilbert Isbin - Echoes
S
Jazz'halo
This is the third album of duets by Isbin and Altoft and their most freely improvised so far. It is the result of an intense yet fruitful meeting in Brugge in 2025, where they recorded improvisations live - mostly without electronic soundscapes.
Gilbert Isbin is Belgium's leading modern composer for classical guitar, early music instruments, bass, ukulele, small ensembles…and also a very fine guitarist. Stephen Altoft is dedicated to the creation of new repertoire for the trumpet and flugelhorn.
For me, the best type of improvisation is where the musicians are taking risks; not afraid to make mistakes and allowing their subconscious to take control – and somehow create something which rewards repeated listening. This album succeeds in doing that, sounding carefree and uninhibited, but always with a clear musical logic.
It is sometimes provocative music which challenges the listener. The melodies avoid obvious modes or scales and there is very little repetition. The use of microtones is clearly intentional but sometimes confusing for anyone not used to that approach.
The presentation is also proudly abstract – tracks are simply titled “Echoes” and numbered 1-18. Trumpet or flugelhorn and nylon strung guitar appear on every track, without electronic effects other than reverb. Guitar synth and electronics are used to provide soundscapes which frame and complement the lead lines.
Each track has a different feel and the varied tone colours are often dazzling. Echoes 1 begins with wafer-thin muted trumpet alongside guitar, with acres of space. The music works up to a dense climax before ending abruptly. Echoes 2 has guitar arpeggios alongside fast chromatic trumpet lines, evoking the flight of an angry wasp. It's a very effective combination. Echoes 3 is abstract and intense, with a reverberant percussion soundscape alongside the duet players.
Echoes 4 has fanfare trumpet playing in microtones combined with “prepared” guitar sounds; so interesting that I immediately listened a second time, imagining a parallel universe. Echoes 5 has rattles and squeaks from metallic percussion making a dry as dust background for lines with a blues feel. Unusual and special and 6 minutes well spent.
Trumpet droning in the bottom register, like a buzzing fly in a paper lantern, accompanies free range guitar in Echoes 6. For Echoes 7, a glitchy electronic percussion groove sounds a lot like “mouth music”, detuned guitar and wah trumpet reach out into space without expecting a reply – witty and liberating.
Open trumpet appears for the first time in Echoes 8, but with flutter tongue effects. The improvised call and response with guitar is melodic and insistent, spiced up by changing reverb spaces. A chiming hand-percussion rhythm introduces Echoes 9, with skittering chromatics from muted trumpet and vibes like chords from guitar synth – another striking contrast.
Echoes 12 has another multi-coloured hand percussion beat, high pitched squeeks, aimless guitar and unguided trumpet – very left-brain, tense and unsettling. Sliding and percussive guitar dominates the next track, again very tense – maybe 13 is unlucky for some? Echoes 14 has wide open spaces again – modal guitar figures and long nasal lines from trumpet. It's the sort of inspired improvisation that will make musicians you feel like playing!
Trumpet sets up a rhythm of repeated notes for Echoes 17, the guitar challenging with energetic syncopation and the final track is reflective, with long trumpet lines over dense chiming chords on guitar. This is a powerful and awe-inspiring album, sometimes ferocious, sometimes mischievous but always inventive.
© Stephen Godsall
Stephen Godsall is a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Southern England
Musicians:
Gilbert Isbin, classical guitar/ quarter-tone guitar, electronics.
Stephen Altoft, trumpet /quarter-tone trumpet quarter-tone flugelhorn
Recorded, edited, mastered by Gilbert Isbin
Cover by Marie-Anne Ver Eecke
