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http://www.jazzweekly.com (1/21/2002)
"Electro-acoustic instruments have massively modified the improv world over the past half-decade. While some musicians have stayed clear of synthesizers, turntables, PowerBooks and other sorts of electronic manipulation, others -- especially in Europe -- have adopted these gizmos wholeheartedly. We're now at a point where with what and how an individual creates is becoming less important than the end result.
Much more fascinating is that finally -- like there are with acoustic instruments -- different styles and techniques have been developed to create with electronics. The four discs here, for instance, all have an electronic component. But like comparing the tenor saxophone playing of Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, it would be difficult to confuse the electronic-acoustic imagination of any one of these musicians with any other.
One-half of Tom & Gerry, with American drummer Gerry Hemingway, Cologne, Germany-based synthesizer player Thomas Lehn was originally an improvising pianist and he brings that keyboard touch and sense of dynamics to this duo, which has been together since 1997. Lehn, who is also involved with a circuit board full of other combos, including Konk Pack with British master percussionist Roger Turner, certainly knows how to interact with a drummer. In this duo situation he simply takes the role of all the other instruments and lets Hemingway supply the percussive undertones. Most impressive when they have the space and momentum to create, the two turn "Titanium Salute" into a virtual reality-big-band salute for the 21st century. With Hemingway coming across like a Space Age Chick Webb in his intro, Lehn uses his instrument to riff like a horn section in response then resonates pseudo guitar and bass string sonics. Ray gun and rocket ship fire out of his synth, melding with the drummer's laser beam rhythms, reifying the link between Sun Ra's electronics and Webb's orchestral precision.
More outwardly electric, "Girandola", a 131/2-minute sound exploitation, moves from a hushed snare and floor tom concoction to a high-pitched ballet of electronic beats and drum echoes. The tune twists, turns and wriggles, with outer space-like whooshes, quasi-sax squalls, prolonged buzzes, and what could be someone's footsteps vying for supremacy with the subtle click of crossed drum sticks, snare palm spanks and a discharge of sharp sounds from Hemingway. Later surf music suggestions bubble up from Lehn's fingers as the drummer hammers out a steady tattoo.
Quicker tempos allow the two to expand the palate even further as the synthesizer player produces sounds that could be a Martian ray gun, the circularly breathed notes of a saxophone, stretched rubber bands and falsetto hunting horn quivers. Lehn can even morph into Keith Emerson circa 1971, firing portable synthesizer bullets into an arena crowd. Meantime movement and excitement is intensified as Hemingway does everything from softly sounding a triangle to sprinting sticks along the shells, rims and skins of his kit, or slowly scraping the cymbal tops. Near-soundless hisses characterize slower tunes like "Walking into Sky", the final number, which attempt to decelerate the duo's sounds and fade into nullity, only be halted by a final synth buzz.!
(Review continues to discuss three other discs) Ken Waxman
http://www.allaboutjazz.com (January 2002)
"With their second duet outing, Tom (Thomas Lehn) & Gerry (Hemingway) at times, spark notions of those frisky cartoon characters Tom and Jerry, thanks to the artists’ generally animated and altogether good-natured approach.
Once again, Mr. Lehn utilizes his analogue synthesizer for excursions of stark expressionism amid an overall metallic sheen via his shrewdly devised maneuvers. However, Lehn’s permutations breathe new life into the world of analogue electronics! Here, sine waves, modulation techniques, and abstractly devised waveforms counterbalance drummer/percussionist, Gerry Hemingway’s rolling and tumbling, polyrhythmic style of execution. Whereas, Lehn also demonstrates his rhythmic sensibilities throughout as the musicians bespeak a sense of veiled beauty atop a program awash with alien soundscapes and free-jazz type dialogue. Besides, the duo often finds ways of merging similar tonalities in conjunction with a plethora of contrapuntal statements, jagged sub-themes, and wittily rendered diversions. Hence, this effort is not about sugarcoated ambient-electronic dreamscapes or environmental music. Ultimately, the musicians establish a rather intriguing paradigm during this curiously interesting and largely gratifying endeavor!" Glenn Astarita
http://www.allmusic.com
A follow-up to their recording on Erstwhile, this duo which operates under the name Tom & Gerry continued to mine the rough-and-tumble field of synth/drums duets. Lehn's analogue synth lends itself to all manner of rude noises, often sputtering and blurting along quite happily while Hemingway is a drummer who also delights in the art of clatter. The two are a well-matched pair and it's often a delight to hear them carousing, launching volleys of impolite sounds in each other's direction. On the shorter pieces, the musicians tend to confine themselves to a single territory of sound, Hemingway, for example, coaxing as varied a selection of tones out of a held cymbal as possible while Lehn elicits harsh bangs from his keyboard. Though occasionally the duo reins itself in (as on "Girandola") and investigates more subtle areas, more often Hemingway attacks his drum kit like a postmodern Gene Krupa and Lehn gamely follows suit. It's an enjoyable combination by and large; listeners who like being aurally buffeted will have a good time here." Brian Olewnick |
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