At its heart, Jeff Gburek’s latest release on Bandcamp, Twin Oscillators, presents itself as astoundingly good experimental music. I had the pleasure of writing about his works (13 mentions, the most, I believe, of any artist whose work I checked out) at my now-defunct blog, A Miscellany of Tasteful Music. The quality of his work never wanes.
In a just world, he would be recognized as one of the foremost improvisers to come out of America in decades, and perhaps as time passes, his work will become more widely recognized. This is one of the reasons I write about the releases of friends, colleagues and composers whose work I respect, to give them some sort of platform for others to hear their works.
The music speaks for itself. It is, in part, electroacoustic music which would make pioneers like Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry proud. What really attracted me to this album was what I felt was the Kosmische Musik vibe in the first two tracks which left me in awe. The closest thing I could reference to this release, besides the two French masters I wrote of earlier, is the German Krautrock band Cluster, and their French counterparts, Fille Qui Mousse. Nothing feels wasted on this album.
The flow is smooth from one track to another, hypnotizing by the time we reach Dharma Bums Gamelan (Remix), and is perhaps the most enjoyable experimental music release of 2021 for me.
