Local Customs is a suite in five movements for flute (Jacqueline Martelle), clarinets (
Richard Cohen), trombone (James Martin), contrabass (Terry Kippenburger), percussion (
Rich O'Donnell), and "electronic harmony generator" (
Tom Hamilton). Although there may be more to it than meets the ear, the latter seems to be a simple keyboard programmed to a "string washes" setting.
Hamilton is a strong improviser on analog synth (see his
Shadow Machine CD released a few months before this one), but he can be a puzzling composer.
Local Customs is the most disorienting work you may ever hear. Each movement consists of an extremely simple but constantly present keyboard part (single notes or diads), over which other discourses take place (from a flute solo in "What Fell Through" to all five instruments in other places). These discourses have a free-flowing quality, but sound thoroughly composed. The clash between the static, almost "new age" keyboard part and these acoustic narratives is striking. There is another contrast at play throughout the album, between the talkative nature of the instrumental parts and the stillness of the music observed at a macroscopic scale. This results in a frustrating situation for the listener, where there is a lot happening yet nothing seems to be going anywhere (however, latching onto a specific part -- say, Martelle's flute in "All the Mapping Shifted" -- reveals interesting thematic developments). A perplexing release.