Image via Moonjune Records
PAKT by PAKT (MoonJune Records)
The musicians behind PAKT have a collective resume that’s truly genre straddling. They have been in thrash metal and jazz fusion bands, sat in with Brian Eno and Suzanne Vega as well as John Zorn. The opening track builds gradually from silence to intensity and one can hear echoes of PAKT members’ previous endeavors.
Their self-titled two-disc album was recorded live last summer at New York’s ShapeShifter Lab art and performance space. The four members—according to the liner notes—played while masked and standing/sitting six feet apart. The resulting music sounds like a free-flowing set of improvisations. There is urgency in the creative moment as electric guitarists, the fretless bassist and the drummer feel their way with each other, setting off small sonic fires.
