Gunn-Truscinski-Nace: Glass Band LP

We have here three musicians with such a rich shared history that they might as well share the same blood. Each an accomplished solo artist in their own right, there’s a vibrant track record of collaborative work as well, with others and among themselves. The Gunn-Truscinski Duo has been a formal going concern for nearly a decade and a half, producing a fabulous string of albums for this label. Truscinski and Nace, along with Jake Meginksy, make up xo4, a group dating back to the early days of this century. All three, with the addition of Kim Gordon, appeared on a record documenting their live scoring of Andy Warhol’s film "Kiss".

And so on "Glass Band", the record at hand, they just fall in together. It’s a seamless grouping, so much so that, despite the distinct instrumentation, it’s somehow hard at times to tell who’s doing what. This is true all the way down to the LP sleeve, which features Nace’s artwork adorned with Gunn’s familiar handwriting. There is no leader, there are no accompanists; we encounter highly developed musical intellects melding in such a refined way as to dispose entirely with expectations in order to get right down to the crucial business of creation.

What a pleasure to be able to shake one’s head and chuckle at the futility of trying to saddle this art with a genre. What a joy to acknowledge that it’s impossible to say what kind of music this is. It reminds me not of other records on my sagging shelves, but of moods and places, of memories from long ago and memories not yet made. Even for those intimately familiar with the output of these three, “Glass Band” delivers the delight of surprise. Something new. Imagine that.