A Philosophy Warping, Little by Little That Way Lies a Quagmire

Konstrukt are an avant-garde quartet from Turkey who have collaborated with a wide range of free music luminaries including saxophonists Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Akira Sakata, Marshall Allen and Joe McPhee; bassist William Parker; guitarist Thurston Moore; and many others, both live and on record. In 2016, they invited Keiji Haino to Istanbul for a recording session and a concert, yielding a studio album and a live album, both bearing the same title. On this, the studio document, they draw him into a surprisingly repetitive, groove-oriented soundworld. The opening track, divided into three sections, has an almost Krautrock feel, with looping percussion, echoplexed voices, sax solos, and Haino alternately crooning or shouting. The second piece, another three-part suite, is less structured and more explosive, with Haino’s face-scraping guitar at the center of the storm.