The Karuna Trio: Imaginary Archipelago

  The Karuna Trio unites percussionists Adam Rudolph and Hamid Drake with Ralph M. Jones on various wind instruments. On Imaginary Archipelago, the band offers a techno-tribal blend of every genre that Rudolph and Drake have worked in over the course of decades. These spontaneous improvisations combine sounds from “primitive” sources like drums and rattles with instruments of the industrial age like saxophone and clarinet, overlaid by Rudolph’s nuanced application of electronic effects. The conceit for the session has the three musicians embarking on a journey through an island chain that exists only in their minds. In the words of the artist’s statement that appears in the booklet, a “three person Research and Development team discovered an imaginary archipelago ... The music documented on this recording is a sounding of these island people’s lived philosophy.” There’s also a note to the effect that although some of the instruments heard may sound familiar, “this is only coincidental.” Each track is named after one of these islands of thought, representing the varied ways of imagined life. Rudolph and Drake go way back, meeting in a drum shop as teenagers in 1969. Rudolph met Jones in 1974 at a music festival where they played with pianist Kenny Cox. With trumpeter Charles Moore, Jones and Rudolph went on to form Eternal Wind, a group that made a couple of albums for the small Flying Fish label in the mid-Eighties. Those connections establish a high degree of trust and instant interplay that characterize their thoroughly absorbing and wildly inventive music. As listeners, we can only be glad that Rudolph, Drake, and Jones made the trip and came home safely to tell all these stories. Recommended. 

Meta 024; Ralph M. Jones (aerophones, voice) Adam Rudolph (membranophones [fingers & hands], idiophones, chordophones, overtone singing, electronic processing) Hamid Drake (membranophones [sticks & hands], idiophones, voice); New Haven, CT, September 21, 2018; Okomibo/ Alima/ Ibak/ Dimahala/ Apekweh/ Madazuba/ Pitek/ Chandirasa/ Suwakaba/ Vajna/ Sorokaba; 66:24. metarecords.com