Malcolm Goldstein & Masashi Harada, Soil (CD)

Of the two players, I'd been vaguely familiar with Malcolm Goldstein when I bought Soil, and unaware of Masashi Harada. Goldstein's playing is as fabulous as I'd been promised, a palette of violin whirring and scraping that's bizarre and distinctive. Masashi's piano playing is tasteful and interesting, if far closer to "convention" (by avant-improv standards) than Goldstein's. The chemistry between the two is uneven—there is certainly potential in the duo, but, to my ears, it seems that more than the infrequent collaboration documented here would be needed for this duo to really develop its ideas. Unfortunately, the liner notes indicate that geographic distance had already kept the group from regular work between the time of the recording (2002) and release (2006).