by Brian Olewnick Erstwhile enjoys pairing an acoustic free improviser with an electric one; the duo of trumpeter Axel Dorner and guitarist/electronicist Kevin Drumm is one of its most inspired combinations. While Dorner can be heard playing "mainstream" avant-garde in other contexts (such as the fine hatOLOGY release by Sven-Ake Johansson, Six Little Pieces for Quintet), here he rarely plays anything that sounds remotely trumpet-like. Instead he uses breath tones that whistle or rustle like breezes, aqueous gurglings that sound subterranean in origin, or percussive clicks and taps that play with the resonance of the brass. Likewise, Drumm creates few sounds generally associated with the guitar, rather integrating his hums, feedback, and so on with Dorner to create a seamless and rich sound-world where each musician's ego is sublimated to the whole. The first two lengthy tracks are studio recordings and have a hermetic and fascinating character. As rarified as the music is, the two performers manage to unearth enormous richness both in sonic detail and simply in the "space" they discover. The three short live pieces (all selections on the disc are untitled) have an entirely different, more expansive sound, as if Dorner and Drumm had just opened their laboratory door to a bracing gust of cool air. Each is not only superb in and of itself, but offers very intriguing vistas of territory as yet uncovered. Axel Dorner & Kevin Drumm is state-of-the-art free improvising of an extremely high order and is strongly recommended.