Chris Thile & Edgar Meyer
Album: Bass And Mandolin
Label: Nonesuch
Tracks: 10
Website: http://edgarmeyer.com/
http://www.christhile.com

Time flies! Young mandolin maestro Thile (of Nickel Creek) began collaborating with one of his personal musical heroes, double bass virtuoso Meyer (who is equally at home in a healthy range of musical disciplines ranging from classical to bluegrass), almost 15 years ago; performing live for the first time in 2003 and making their studio recording debut in late 2008 with an eponymous and selectively well received offering that basically did what it said on the tin but proved an at times thorny nut to crack, not least due to its necessarily sparse chamber-newgrass character and the obstinately abstract nature of its clutch of original compositions. It was (for some) quite slow to yield up its virtues, although the musicians and their inventiveness and virtuosity demand considerable respect, not least for their refusal to dumb down their approach or to compromise or dilute their proven musicianship.

Much the same can be said for this followup record, although I'd be the last to criticise the pair for taking this entirely justifiable stance. The listener once again needs to be prepared for a challenge, open to listen closely and attentively, to follow the lines of the musical argument while appreciating the deployment of texture and timbre in a marvellously imaginative fashion. Technique inevitably triumphs on these ten pieces, but that needn't be a problem for the receptive listener. The musical idiom is a tightly coordinated environment in some ways, yet also predominantly improvisatory in its spacious and freewheeling amalgam of newgrass, Americana vernacular, modern jazz and contemporary classical, a modus operandi that's impossible to pigeonhole or pin down, and the musicians' virtuosity is almost incidental to their commitment to musicality and expressive elan. The energy of pieces like Monkey Actually, Tarnation and Big Top is vibrant and never in any way contrived, for instance. Thile and Meyer both also convince with their versatility in terms of adopting different roles within the compositional framework of any given piece - whether conventionally accompanimental in character or functionality or creatively interweaving in counterpoint; a good example of this fluidity comes with the disc's final selection It's Dark In Here, and the musicians' control of dynamics is particularly impressive here too (perhaps even more so on the episodic exoticism of El Cinco Real). And by the way, the instrumental palette is sensibly varied too on this new record, for we find Meyer playing piano on a couple of compositions (displaying hypnotic gamelan-like manœuvres on I'll Remember For You and more insistent gestures on Look What I Found), whereas Thile gives a good account of himself on guitar on the genially driving Friday.

Throughout, we can expect nothing less than top-flight, crisply registered, clearly enunciated playing and recording - and that's exactly what we get, for this is a first-class disc: one for the muso-aficionado for sure, but one whose delights all open-minded listeners should also be encouraged to sample.

David Kidman