A crossover between adult contemporary and classical categories, Landscape with Figure (2005) may be described more accurately and helpfully as a kind of electro-acoustic/ambient improvisation that draws on a number of fusion jazz and avant-garde sounds for its most successful effects. Despite the seemingly spare resources of Scott Fraser's electric guitar and Bruce Friedman's trumpet, the duo's timbral palette is rather broad and becomes more varied as the piece progresses. Furthermore, the music starts out simply, but passes through a number of complications that support the illusion of a large ensemble or even a bank of synthesizers. The detached, forlorn trumpet lines have some of the dryness of a Miles Davis solo, though without the associated feeling of mystery, since Friedman's playing is too closely miked and always in the center of things. Fraser's soft backgrounds of sustained added-note chords, wispy melodic fragments, and fluttering guitar effects are complementary to Friedman's austere part, though much of the time the static harmonies and sheets of sound change too slowly to maintain interest. That said, much of Landscape with Figure is effective as "chill-out" background music and quite enjoyable, though Haste & Intent, Field with Sticks, and The Cartographer's Dilemma are fairly pointillistic, twittering, and edgy; and the ominous Toolsville goes furthest in exploiting the potential of Fraser's reverb spring units and dissonant sonic layers. Some may choose to program their CD players for the mellow tracks only, but listen to the whole album to appreciate the full range of its haunting sonorities and darkling moods.
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