An invigorating, deeply interwoven recording from the pairing of Glasgow-born, London-based musician, Conal Blake and percussionist, improviser and sound artist, Regan Bowering. Having collaborated in a trio alongside musician and computer programmer Li Song since 2022, this was their first duo performance, recorded at OTO in January 2025 on a bill alongside Beachers and picoFarad.

For this set the pair combined microphone feedback with acoustic percussion - augmented with a delay pedal - where the mics picked up the acoustic, tactile percussive gestures and used them to generate more feedback, which in turn resonated the drums. The result is a highly present, deeply symbiotic setup, whereby Blake and Bowering react to one another, but also the equipment itself, with the resulting strands building to something as densely intertwined as a Piranesi etching.

Over the set's 21 minute runtime, Blake crafts woozy squalls of feedback, ranging from shrill, questioning tones to ragged, guttural growls, with a highly tactile grasp of the timbral possibilities of the set-up. Alongside this (within, under, over, through), Bowering's clipped percussive ricochets and sharply curtailed rolls spill into an intricate approach that delves deeply into the sonic possibilities of the kit; coaxing new textures and forms from the feedback loops, that in turn galvanise the entire sound palette into new territories.

With such a synergetic sound and interplay, it's perhaps pointless to home in on the component parts too closely, though. Whatever the source, the sound that the duo create is curious, enthralling and fully alive.

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Recorded, mixed and mastered by Billy Steiger