Dose Hermanos - Persistence of Memory

CD Baby, 2022

CD Baby

Dose Hermanos is the eutection of Bob Bralove and Tom “T.C.” Constanten, both veterans of that musical show known as the Grateful Dead. Bralove performed on keyboards with the band between 1968 and 1970, while Constanten served as an engineer, programmer, and occasional performer from 1987 to 1995. Concerning the music the pair makes together, this is where any comparison with the Dead ends, save for the wide-open, wholly improvisational exploration that is the Dose. The pair's approach is to achieve, as closely as possible, 100% improvisation all the time. Their most recent studio recording, Batique (Blotter Brothers, 2014) delved into the sonic possibilities of two acoustic pianos, something immediately recalling An Evening with Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea: In Concert (Columbia, 1978) crossed with Keith Jarrett's The Köln Concert (ECM, 1975).

Persistence of Memory is a more potently evolved collection of music that expresses the Constanten observation that "We’re not content to stay static for long….We’re coherent but not congruent so each of us brings something to the table. And it’s a nice table.” The music performed on Persistence of Memory is as disparate as that on Batique is integrated. The recording's title derives from Salvador Dalí's famous 1931 painting of the same title, depicting melted timepieces on some barren beach (what is that creature anyway?). The instrumentation involves various keyboards and technologies emulating everything from plush strings to bright marimba that pushes the same boundaries that Dali did in his Surrealism.

The title cut introduces the album, all spacial synth and imagined strings, airy and wide open. That gives way to the percussion-driven "Inside the Ancient Tetrahedron" with the pair creating pizzicato strings and a woody marimba sound that is rhythm-distilled. A moving target is the soundscape Bralove and Constaten are looking for. "Cirque Des Etioles" is an electric piano-soprano saxophone duet, again fully synthesized. "Desire" sports a sauntering bass layered with an organ, electric piano, and electric guitar. It is the only piece with vocals. It is a bipolar affection of Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On."

"IRT - Inner City Rapid Transit," "Smoke Rings Of My Mind" and "Waltz Of The Autumn Moon" the pieces where both musicians play piano as was experienced in Batique, with the playing of "IRT - Inner City Rapid Transit," closely approximates its title. "Smoke Rings Of My Mind" is a ponderous nocturn, while "Waltz Of The Autumn Moon" is a melancholy, almost sinister aural reading. It is a dizzying ride throughout Persistence of Memory. The ride is memorable in the curious way 21st-century miniseries soundtracks are: surprising, delighting, frightening, and informing.