The duo of the clarinet and vocal performer Isabelle Duthoit and Austrian trumpeter Franz Hautzinger, has been playing together a great deal in recent years, including Uruk quartet “with American drummers-percussionists Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang, “Where is the sun” with 2 turntables players Dieb13 and martin Tetreault, with JohnTilbury ….

The duet is an intimate meeting, not only because of the personal connection between Duthoit and Hautzinger but more due to the emotional tone of this music. Duthoit and Hautzinger sound like opposites who attract and complement each other. She employs her expressive, wordless voice to suggest physically intense, deep emotional states of mind while he prefers a more reserved and introspective playing. She sounds completely intuitive, totally possessed by her uninhibited, extrovert feelings while he adopts a more cerebral sense of control.

Duthoit and Hautzinger are strong-minded improvisers who like to take risks and experiment. Both know how sketch profound, fascinating sonic universes with minimalist, simple means.

Hautzinger keeps developing his idiosyncratic vocabulary that translates reductive, electronic sounds to microtonal trumpet sounds, often using a quarter-tone trumpet to produce pure, abstract sounds and silent breaths. Duthoit spirals Hautzinger’s abstract expressions into turbulent, ecstatic moods, with her immediate, natural stream of cries, groans, shrieks, gasps and whispers.

Their interplay is simply telepathic – quiet, close and naked. Sometimes it is difficult to know who is doing what, Often both leap instantly between quiet, meditative expressions to cathartic peaks.

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Paul Buckton (guitar) / Steve Cournane (drums) / Lance Cablk (violin)

Friday 23 February @ Audio Foundation, doors open 8.00pm
$10 // $15 on the door