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Wire review (by Bruce Russell):
These live 2004 sets by improvising Manhattan duo Linn Culbertson and Tom Surgal, recorded at Tonic, capture the intoxication of White Out's analogue synth/percussion minmeld. The results speak for themselves: this is top-shelf spliff from go to whoah.
Surgal's percussive signature is instantly recognisable (even with a drawer of cutlery), taking the pulse of life into outer space in a way that evokes his free jazz idols without stooping to imitate. The dialogue with Culbertson's library of untamed analogue textures is seamless and Heraclitean in its flow, yet they possess the refined sensibility and restraint necessary to allow enough room for their guests to well and truly 'take it to the river'.
Thurston Moore is an accomplished guitar colourist, and in concert with Jim O'Rourke's alchemical laptop skills, he keeps up White Out's signature hectic momentum. Even though these two sets are the only times this quartet have played together, they move from high to low dynamic range with a beautiful flow, driving group interplay into territory only the most experienced improvisors can occupy.
Senso embodies an understanding of sound that we now take for granted, but which has in fact been created by these players as much as anyone. The idea that the liberating sprit of the free-est jazz and the out-est rock can be combined with the soundwork strategies of electroacoustics may be de rigeur in 2009, but it has seldom been better demonstarted than this.
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