Caterina Barbieri & Bendik Giske’s »At Source« resounds music as wellspring, that which is essential and unknowable, and yet utterly primary. It finds two acclaimed composer-musicians building a world together in self-contained collaboration between analogue synthesis and an extended approach to the saxophone that conjures its own universe of sound. It is at once intimate and cosmic, drawing on the challenges and possibilities of their artistic exchange, tearing down technique to access all the expansive possibilities of their sonic meeting point.

»At Source« is a document of the world of sound to be conjured when two artists strive for something together, discovering the expansions and limitations of performance by bodies and machines. It is not an exercise in assimilation, but in productive exchange and creative confrontation. It does not draw on outside energies or influences, but grapples with what there is to find in their respective playing. »It also reflects how natural the collaboration was«, says Barbieri, »a meeting at the source which was spontaneous, graceful and natural«.

Barbieri and Giske first met and were enthralled by one another’s performances at Kunsthaus Glarus in 2019, a meeting that spurred conversations on the power of transitions as a compositional force. Giske later contributed a rework of »Fantas« for »Fantas Variations« (Editions Mego, 2021), an ambitious undertaking to rescore Barbieri’s work for his saxophone and voice, a challenge Giske had started undertaking two years prior as an ongoing practice of transcription. »The request came as a proof of aligned ideas«, says Giske.

Their new collaborative project then started during an artistic residency in Milan’s ICA in 2021, by invitation of Swiss artist and curator Jan Vorisek, as the world was emerging from lockdown. This meeting, and the preceding closure of sites for cultural exchange, made their work together »feel like springtime«, says Barbieri. Giske, who was on the brink of releasing his sophomore album »Cracks«, then joined Barbieri’s »light-years« tour, which functioned as an inaugural incarnation of her newborn label and platform through a series of multi-artist curated shows with appearances of Lyra Pramuk, Nkisi, MFO, among other artists.

Through the tour, they continued to develop material live, and this release, laid down in the studio, is true to that ever-evolving process of creation, where live feedback stays essential to the vitality of this collaborative effort. The tracks are each named with two evocative words that contain the two poles of their sound. Theirs is both abstract and cosmic, in the synth as machine undermined by Barbieri’s naturalistic playing, and in Giske’s continuous exploration of the symbiosis between his instrument, voice, and body. These binaries, of body and machine, posed various challenges, notably in how the stepped patterns Barbieri uses were near-impossible to translate for Giske’s body to perform, and other times where mathematical resolutions were needed to sync their playing. Explains Giske: »It forced me to go to the core of what I am and what I have to offer«. Barbieri says that it »explores the liminality between the machine and the human, and the vulnerability in this process«.

On »Intuition, Nimbus«, the first track to be written, Giske’s playing flutters and rises on Barbieri’s synth, like a flock of birds lifted skywards on thermal columns, with clouds of pulsing tones fanning avian wings. »Alignment, Orbit« settles into a steady torque, Giske’s gentle percussions syncing with shifting loops, steadily building energy and conjuring solidity from breath and resistance. The extended »Impatience, Magma« stretches glowing and languorous, honing in on and picking up a synth melody with whetted edge that cuts through the firmament, populating a broad cosmos of extended tones and replicating patterns in a piece that calls to mind Laurie Spiegel’s extended works, and steps into transcendent duet with Giske’s saxophone at its most keening and spiritual in tone and movement. »Persistence, Buds« unfurls gracefully in sensuous sympatico, as saxophone caresses Barbieri’s slowly twirling progressions, a tactile and meditative closer.

»At Source« is testament to two divergent practices finding a whole cosmos in which to convene; music is crystalised and made utterly enveloping through the focused and critical work of two musicians working at their peak. The versions here are, temptingly, »just one of many versions« of this abundant source material, Giske explains. Like the best collaborations, »At Source« is more than the sum of its parts – bringing more to the feast than the simple combination of two musicians, promising versions upon versions of the exquisite material captured here.