Sawing, sputtering, gurgling and wailing, Architeuthis Walks on Land is every bit the displaced and terrifying cephalopod that the name suggests. The viola and bassoon are two instruments rarely associated with free improvisation and noise; yet Amy Cimini and Katherine Young rip it up with particular aplomb, weaving disjunct lines, constructing chaotic sound masses, and raising towering monoliths. Crafting their improvised materials into tight structures, they capture the compositional, timbral and expressive breadth of this uncommon coupling: from divergently soloistic to profoundly intertwined playing, from a slowly unfolding intimacy to a jagged and kinetic style. Cimini and Young lunge and flutter through their materials with the intuition and energy of constant discovery.
Violist Amy Cimini and bassoonist Katherine Young have been performing together as Architeuthis Walks on Land since 2003, drawing on their mutual interests in free music, rock, and contemporary classical music. The duo developed their early style within Chicago’s rich experimental music community, relocating to New York in 2008, where they have collaborated with artists like Anthony Braxton, Peter Evans, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jessica Pavone, Jason Ajemian, !!! and Hans Joachim Irmler from Faust. Known for a charismatic stage presence that contrasts their aggressive playing styles, Cimini and Young are equally at home in rock clubs and concert halls and Architeuthis maintains a busy performing schedule in New York and Brooklyn. The duo is planning an East Coast tour in support of Natura Naturans this coming fall.
