Eyvind Kang - 7 Nades (1996)

Despite a stellar (and large) collection of supporting musicians, Eyvind Kang's first solo album 7 NADEs manages to sound relatively simple. The repertoire of instrumentalists assembled are largely put to use in smaller groups, in short bursts of blinding, grating noise. Released as part of Tzadik's composer series, this album does allow Kang the room to stretch musically, and he has produced something entirely different here from his acclaimed violin work with artists like the Sun City Girls and Bill Frisell. Sporadic melodic chunks do sneak in, usually underlined by completely unrelated elements like the sound of running water. In a world where almost no sound exists in a pure space without distraction, this combination of thematically distant musical bits does seem to make sense, but it inhibits his ability to set an overall tone for the work. Occasionally beautiful or beautifully painful, this album nonetheless suffers from its randomness.