The unity of opposites
Ethno-garde project "Kihnoua" in "School of Dramatic Art"
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Despite the fact that the ensemble "‘Kihnoua’" played between the May holidays, the hall "Manege" in Sretenka was full, since the initiator of the project saxophonist and composer Larry Ochs known to us since 1983. In that year one of the two Saxophone Quartets which were wxisting at the time (ROVA), by some miracle managed to play Moscow and Leningrad joining a group, of peacekeepers, or just foreign tourists. In mid-1980's quartet ROVA hosted in California, our trio Ganelin - Tarasov - Chekasin and then in 1989 came to Russia for an ‘official’ tour. At the beginning of this season Ochs’ trio Jones, Jones (with the aformentioned Tarasov and Mark Dresser) dated the presentation of their debut CD ( the Moscow label SoLyd Records) at the 3d d Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art.
And now a completely new project of Ochs ‘Kihnoua’ tours the Old World to promote the album Unauthorized Caprices («Unauthorized Capriccios", or "unlawful whims")?which is published not anywhere, but again in Eastern Europe, by the Polish avant-jazz label NotTwo, which as our SoLyd, does not bend under any difficulty. Thus, the increased attention to our new jazz community to Larry Ochs work, is, so to say, mutual.
Kihnoua is nasically international. In a press release Ochs says that Kihnoua is an ancient Greek term meaning "difference". Or rather, something like a dialectical "unity of opposites". Consequently, these opposites should attract. Namely: on the one hand, oral traditional ethnics, on the other – new jazz spontaneity. Or in general: objective nature of writig creativity versus personal nature of improvisation. Ethnic in Kihnoua - it pansori, street Korean monoopera (traditionally a duo of two wandering performers – she-singer and drummer). Cinema fans should know a movie Sopyonje by the patriarch of the South Korean Im Kwon-taek.
For the roles of the pansori singer there are a real Korean Dohee Lee and a drummer (and also electronic wizard) Scott Amendola. The leader saxophonist acts both as a moralist in a classicist piece and also inpewrsonating sort of a demiurge. Ochs originally wanted at least one local professional musician to join ‘Kihnoua’ broad profile, including improvisation. Long before the tour, he sent a request to find him on the spot a cellist, an improviser, but "preferably not limited by the jazz tradition." The CD Disc Kihnoua recorded Joan Jeanrenaud – the ex-member of the legendary Kronos Quartet, but it seems that Ochs have not found a musician of the same caliber, so he had to ask for new jazz bass players. The Dutchman Wilbert de Joode joined Kihnoua in Europe and was replaced by the one and only Vladimir Volkov in Russia.
The resulting quartet showed in the "School of Dramatic Art" six pieces (three for each set ) – both from Unauthorized caprices and brand new ones, even yet untitled. Explicitly programatic titles seem to be important for Ochs, he names pieces in the sort of traditional Eastern ethnic fashion: "Weightless", "Less than a wind", "A sudden gust of wind" (in English – just one syllable Slat) and "Flutters".
I won’t call Dohee Lee’s natiral voice of a perticular brightness, but her skills let her do at least three things quite professionally, that are 1/recitative-patter of the Korean opera origin (for thosw ho do not know Korean it sounds like a jazz scat or hip-hop rap)2/ rapid transition to broad cantilena melody and shamanistic incantations, sort of horror screams and growls. It dos not make sense to compare Dohee Lee with our avant-garde Tuvan Sainkho or her young Canadian rival Tanya Tagaq (who, incidentally, has worked not only with Bjork, but with Scott Amendola as well). But it is the stage acting where Lee clearly would win.
Unlike Sainkho, whose stage presence tends literally to suppress everybody on stage thing, Dohee Lee clearly observes 'mutual responsibility' of improvising collective. And this is accurately what Ochs needs for rendition of his works.that is carefully notated thematic material for improvisation and precise instructions, to whom, how and when to develop it . However, the first part of the concert gave the impression of almost spontaneous collective improvisation, despite the fact that there were allusions to the classic free-jazz of the 60s, may be John Coltrane and/or Pharoah Sanders (in Slat). As a result, the first part was like a prelude to the second part. Dohee Lee’s sparse theatrics,nevertheless,were not just part of her vocal performance, but sometimes served as a counterpoint to her own singing. Her voices became even more prominent when Scott Amendola switched to his Kaos pad. His electronics showed attrtacted the opposites impersoinated not only by the singer, bur also by Vilkov’s bass and the leader’s sopranino sax. Amendola’s soundscapes, particularly during the second part, also represented the unity of opposites: sounds of nature, corresponding to the names of pieces, but simultaneously he created "otherworldly" effects, not that primitive "space" sounds, but the sounds of which theatre directors of pre-electric era dreamed imagining the appearances of Ghost of Hamlet’s father. We do not have this unity of technology, tradition and ethnics in our new jazz at all. . It is therefore understandable why the second part of the concert was met with loud cheers.
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Photo by Petra Cvelbar, Design by Thomas Wong 
