Paolo Angeli & Takumi Fukushima – Itsunomakika – ReR Megacorp – ReRPA5 - ****

Paolo Angeli wrestles a giant Sardinian guitar, with hand-triggered analogue one-man band adaptations bolted to it, like Heath Robinson fusing free improvisation and soaring gypsy folk.
Here, the Japanese singer and violinist Takumi Fukushima augments his signature moves, her voice fluttering and flowering like Bjork, or the great Czech improviser Iva Bittova, from rabid dog snarls to ravishing melodies.
Angeli's effects set multiple string parts and percussive clunks in simultaneous motion, the duo sometimes sounding like an emotionally unstable Steve Reich quintet, before stripping the music back to leave Fukushima's smoke curl voice and teardrop pizzicato plucks naked and painfully exposed.

(28/8/11)