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"To some, this might seem like an unlikely collaboration. Throughout much of his recent career, whether solo or as a member of Supersilent, Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen has explored expansive, deeply atmospheric territory. He has recorded not only for Rune Grammofon, but also for ECM, and his austere, breathy tone inspired by the Japanese shakuhachi is entirely in keeping with the latter label's Scandinavian cool, even when Henriksen is displaying his abstractly explorative side. Belgian drummer Teun Verbruggen would seem to embrace experimentalism of a somewhat different stripe, seated on the drum stool for Peter Vermeersch's oddball big band Flat Earth Society for a decade, collaborating with creative jazz pianists, and recently firing up noisy jazztronica improvs with his groups Othin Spake and the Bureau of Atomic Tourism, documented on his Rat Records label. But here they are on the 2012-2013 Rat album Black Swan, although not exactly together, since Verbruggen recorded drums and electronics in Belgium during September 2010 and sent digital files to Henriksen, who added trumpets, vocals, Hardanger fiddle, keyboards, snare drum, samples, and treatments from his home in Norway during February 2011. Knowing the back-story behind the creation of these 11 sonic vignettes makes the results that much more impressive, particularly in how Henriksen found evocative ways to build upon Verbruggen's foundation of abstract, even arrhythmic percussive and electronic sounds (although the listener sometimes can't discern with absolute confidence which musician produced which sounds on the album). "Dave Lynch Allmusic.com
