Roebke Labycz duo

Jason Roebke - contrabass
Brian Labycz - electronics

Reduced to a collection of adjectives: gestural, sparse, reckless, quiet, improvised, incongruous, spartan, engaging, free, deliberate, contradictory, confrontational, enigmatic, empty, boring, refined, uncomfortable, heroic, confounding, poignant.

Reviews

from the Chicago Reader:
"...they create an austere, almost desolate soundscape, where a terse thwack or string scrape carries startling force, but the greatest pleasure is in their interactions in the pin-drop delicate passages between those gestures. It's no longer enough for contemporary improvisers to make the listener wonder who's doing what and with which instrument--although this pair certainly manages that. Roebke and Labycz's heavily tactile utterances masterfully underline the physicality of their instruments, which must be struck, rubbed, or touched in some way to function, but their interplay is so sensitive and engrossing I found myself not caring a whit about what was making the sounds." - Peter Margasak

from All About Jazz:
"The abstraction of improvised music, and the additional distance that a recording (over a live performance) subjects a listener to, may be cause for concern. Listeners open to the conceptual and possibly transcendental experience that such music brings are often rewarded. Listening to this duo between Jason Roebke and Brian Labycz is one of those premium experiences. The music, or the sounds here, are the touch of Roebke’s fingers on strings, the wooden tap and reverberation of the contrabass and Labycz’s electronics. This combination of acoustic and electric is just that; Labycz’s electronics buzz, pop, and making the current felt. Silences are highlighted by the introduction of contact by both players. Intensity is developed through the motion of either current or activity. The beauty of this listening experience is not just the sounds but the accompanying tactile sensations created in the imagination." - Mark Corroto

from the Chicago Reader:
"John Cage found music in the noise around us everyday. electronicist Brian Labycz and acoustic bassist Jason Roebke take that premise a step further by making music that sounds like everyday noise. In jazz-oriented groups like Tigersmilk and the Valentine Trio, Roebke is the consummate inside-outside guy, switching effortlessly between hard swing and arrhythmic explosions, but with Labycz he goes all the way out. On duo, a cd-r release on Labycz's Peira label, there's no groove or melody—in fact you can't always tell Roebke's playing a bass but he's doing what the music needs, complementing Labycz's harsh scrapes and lacerating crackles with superbly timed snaps and cavernous groans; their improvisations sound like a carefully orchestrated rummage through a hardware store." - Bill Meyer