ALL ABOUT JAZZ: TOP ALBUMS OF 2019
The seven spontaneous pieces on terraphonia defy clarification, let alone categorization. Brennan’s alto saxophone is enigmatic and abstract; Moimême’s guitars—of his own design—are played together, with bow, mallet, or hand, and prepared with various objects. The interaction between musicians is not any easier to explain than the music itself. Moimême’s guitars behave as completely foreign devices; the territory they occupy is no more familiar than the instruments.
Karl Ackerman
(See Karl Ackerman’s Top Albums 2019)
As far away for a standard saxophone-and-guitar(s) session as can be imagined, for sheer audacity alone terraphonia deserves attention.
Ken Waxman
Jazz Word, January 29, 2020
A delightful and surprisingly accessible set of unique, highly abstract improvisations. Just when you think there is nothing new under the sun, brennan and Moimême come to the rescue, with something not only different but also compelling.
Steve Loewy
NYC Jazz Record, December, 2019
It is like entering a strange new world that is only partially familiar. There is a thin line between fascinating and disorienting here. Take some time to jump and hold onto to something before you drown.
Bruce Lee Gallanter
Downtown Music Gallery Newsletter, October 4th, 2019
The music is a dance between brennan’s linear, highly inflected (mutated, vocalic, emotive, personal) lines and Moimême’s variety theatre universe in which models of order and entropy are repeatedly proposed and erased.
Stuart Broomer
Point of Departure, Ezz-thetics Column, September, 2019
There are indeed many bold attempts on terraphonia to offer here a new sonic alchemy, one without any clear narrative or even the building of tension . But more than that, brennan and Moimême sketch a new and brave space-time continuum where silences, cryptic, fragmented sounds and enigmatic, resonant noises introduce a unique listening experience.
Eyal Hareuveni
Salt Peanuts, August 29, 2019
The feeling of openness and discovery remains tangible. The listener actually becomes one who partakes in that fascination with the unknown or with what has not yet been explored.
Guy Peters
enola.be — August 15 ,2019
An absolutely unique album that finds two creative musicians finding new ways to communicate. This is hard to define music, but even when the harshest tones are at play, the duo presents them with care and precision. brennan compliments Moimême’s sudden tonal attacks with quickly formed ideas, while Moimême fills the silences that the saxophonist leaves with unexpected sounds.
Paul Acquaro
The Free Jazz Collective — July 31, 2019
the music created seems an attempt to find a new paradigm, and this is particularly evident on the superb track entitled gotabrilhar. There could be no better example of a visual music, not because it was played to accompany or suggest moving images driven by plot, but rather because it in itself functions as cinema.
Rui Eduardo Paes
jazz.pt — July 26, 2018
terraphonia is often intense, with even the occasional stillness having a penetrating effect. Moimême and brennan are different types of virtuosic free players but they flawlessly combine their individual maneuvers into shared creativeness. That is the quality that makes terraphonia consistently intriguing and a challenging listen.
Karl Ackerman
All About Jazz — July 8, 2019
the two set up an intricate, contrapuntal web of convergence and divergence in phrasing and dynamics. Through their sensitivity to each other’s contributions, brennan and Moimême are able to transform the particulars of contrast and difference into a higher-level, expressive synthesis.
Daniel Barbiero
Avant Music News — July 2, 2019