Where We Were is not your usual set of saxophone duets. Over the course of nearly four years, Caroline Kraabel and Phil Hargreaves hauled their saxes, flutes, and recording equipment to several unusual recording locations, from the anechoic chamber at Liverpool University to tunnels, alleyways, packed clubs and empty halls. The idea was to add a third player in the music: the location, which is not a new idea in the field -- for instance, the Japanese string duo Kuwayama -- Kijima has released a number of such in situ recordings. What is new on the other hand -- and extremely effective -- is to combine recordings from different locations into a single piece. And so Where We Were avoids "site-specific" and opts for "site-shifting" improvisation. By going through the same short list of preplanned gestures (held intervals, quick tongue playing interspersed with silences) in each location, in addition to playing truly spontaneous music in response to the acoustics, Kraabel and Hargreaves made sure they could rely on a number of "hinges" to use to switch locations in the editing phase of the project. That is what allows them to make atmospheres crossfade behind what sounds like an uninterrupted performance -- and they do it sometimes in rapid succession, disorienting the listener, especially when the album is experienced on headphones. But amidst all the tricky editing and conceptual thought that went into the making of this album, the strongest element remains the interplay between Kraabel and Hargreaves. Their playing is at times abrasive, but can also sound very sweet and is always consensual, a rare quality in free improvisation. The re-composition of this playing into a hybrid electro-acoustic work (in fact, a single, continuous 50-minute piece) was not necessary. And that's probably why the result is so convincing. ~ François Couture, Rovi

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