This review appeared in the Fall 2008 issue of the Paris Transatlantic.
“Here’s another name to add to the already long list of so-called “extended techniques” trumpeters: Brooklyn-based Jacob Wick, who joins percussionist Andrew Greenwald for a set of four duets, entitled, wait for it, “Track 1″, “Track 2″, “Track 3″ and “Track 4″, with a total duration of, yes, 37’55″. One supposes that the track and album titles were chosen not out of lack of imagination but more as a plea for listeners to approach the pieces as “pure music” (whatever that is), or maybe an act of homage to the likes of Braxton – I see he’s now up to Composition No 367B – and Cage. Duration as title of work, 4’33″ being the most notorious example. You could say there’s a touch of late Cage Number Piece austerity to Wick and Greenwald’s first track, which, clocking in at over 21 minutes, divides the album in half – indeed, one wonders whether a vinyl release wouldn’t have been more appropriate, as the three shorter pieces that follow seem to belong together as a more lively counterbalancing triptych, one that makes for an interesting comparison with Nate Wooley and Paul Lytton’s recent (untitled) LP outing on Broken Research.
Lowercase / EAI seems to have arrived at a fork where two roads diverge in a yellow wood, and can’t decide whether to go further down Sugimoto Lane to where it bends in the undergrowth of silence or take the other path which, having perhaps the better claim, doubles back to more traditional chatter and clatter. On 37:55 Wick and Greenwald take a couple of tentative steps in each direction before heading back to the junction to consider their next move. They still seem just a little afraid to let themselves go (notably on the third track), but it’s that repressed energy which gives the music its peculiar urgency.” – Dan Warburton
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