OURSELF BEHIND OURSELF, CONCEALED | TEXTURA REVIEW

First things first: the unusual title clarinetist Tasha Warren and cellist Dave Eggar chose for their debut album derives from Emily Dickinson's “One Need Not Be a Chamber to be Haunted”; for the musicians, the poet's words resonated for echoing the feelings of unease and disorientation the pandemic and lockdown brought into peoples' lives. Yet while the six diverse pieces featured on the release were birthed during that discombobulating period, the material more offers a welcome respite from the waking nightmare than lends physical form to it. The pleasures afforded by hearing Warren and Eggar interpret pieces by Paquito D'Rivera, Meg Okura,Pascal Le Boeuf, and others—sometimes with the composers participating—provide a refreshing break from a news cycle dominated by death and despair; that the performances are world premieres makes the recording all the more inviting.

The tapestry the six pieces form is multi-hued and stylistically rich. D'Rivera's associated with jazz primarily, but his African Tales naturally relocates the focus to a far different realm; Martha Redbone's Black Mountain Calling, by comparison, looks to folk music from, in her words, “the hills and hollows of Appalachia” for inspiration. Each piece, while unified by the presence of Warren and Eggar, locates itself on a slightly different spot on the musical spectrum. The album's global span is established by D'Rivera's opener, which he likens to “a crossing caravan of Tuaregs with their passing camels at sundown in Timbuktu” seen from afar. As if indirectly referencing the isolation associated with the pandemic, the piece begins with the evocative sound of Warren solemnly intoning alone before Eggar enters, first coupling with her for a unison statement before separating to engage in conversational to-and-fro. So smooth is the execution, you might not even notice Warren switching between Bass and Bb clarinet during the ten-minute trek; for his part, Eggar tickles the ear with passionate bowed expressions when not plucking to back Warren with a walking bass line.