Michael Formanek continued his string of shows with L’Off Jazz this past Friday night, this time at a sold out O Patro Vys in duo format.
Joining him on stage was Montreal’s own Steve Raegele who brought with him two guitars and a slew of pedals to inject whatever colour or texture was needed as the two improvised soundscapes, ostinatos, and solos in tandem. Formanek, for his part, only made use of a bass and a bow to create the sounds he wanted, but utilized various to achieve them including spiccato, left handed hammer-ons and harmonics. Together, the two managed to create hypnotic and trance-like moments with soundscapes that engaged the audience deeply. My only real complaint would be the format of the evening.
The show was divided into two solo sets by Raegele and Formanek respectively, followed by a third set where the two finally played as a duo. The duo set, to my ears, was decidedly better than the sum of its parts, and I would have preferred to hear more of it as opposed to high level noodling on a single instrument at a time. As a duo, the volume swells, fast repeat delay settings, and tremolo passages of Raegele’s guitar finally had something to interact with; and equally, Formanek’s power chords, pentatonic licks, and ostinatos, was recontextualized as a foundation to be played overtop of.
It’s possible they organized it this way to pad the show for time; understandable considering Formanek’s busy schedule with the festival this year, but I left wanting just a little more from the two.
