Axel Dörner, Thomas Lehn, Phil Minton
Toot - Two

Toot:
Axel Dörner - trumpet
Thomas Lehn - analogue synthesiser
Phil Minton - voice

 1. ling      26:52
 2. klagen  27:22

Recorded in concert at Esslingen, Germany 2008 (ling)  & Klagenfurt, Austria 2005 (klagen)

Reviews

"As its title implies, this is the second outing – the first was on Sofa three years ago – from the triumvirate of Axel Dörner (trumpet), Thomas Lehn (analogue synth) and Phil Minton (voice). It also refers to the fact that the disc contains just two tracks, "ling", recorded in June 2008 in Esslingen and "kla", which dates from May 2005 in Klagenfurt. Connoisseurs of Dörner, Lehn and Minton can amuse themselves by trying to work out how the musicians' individual vocabularies have evolved over those three years, but suffice it to say they make abundant and gleeful use of their particular "tricks" (to quote Paul Lovens): there are plenty of pitchless machine gun puffs and gritty low notes from Dörner, spring reverb shudders and sci-fi bleeps from Lehn and split-tone wheezes, birdcall twitters and Leatherface-does-Donald-Duck from Minton. But even though the individual sounds themselves will no doubt be familiar to you, dear reader, the way these three master craftsmen choose to deploy them is source of amusement and delight.

To paraphrase Art Lange writing about Misha Mengelberg, you can hear them listening to each other – and they take great pleasure in going their own ways when you least expect it. It'd be also too easy for one of Minton's boozy spitstorms to provoke an avalanche of stuttering and splattering from Dörner and Lehn, but more often than not they take the opposite tack, sitting quietly on a sound until Phil either shuts up or joins them. Similarly, some of Dörner's busiest playing occurs while Minton is at his most demure and introspective. It all adds up to one of the most musically satisfying improv releases of the year, on what must be (though I hate the inevitable end of year "top tens" and "best of"s) 2008's label of the year.”                                                                           
Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic

“The first album by the trio TOOT appeared in 2003.  ‘Two’, their second disc, comes five years later, recorded at festivals in Austria and Germany, and issued on the British label another timbre.  The quality of the album comes as no surprise.  The musicians’ abilities are well-known and have been demonstrated on dozens of discs.  Minton, Dörner and Lehn each have their own strong personal style which is faithfully reproduced from album to album, so that people know in advance what to expect.  The major (and perhaps only) difference between ‘Two’ and their previous cd is the time and place of the recording; everything else remains unchanged.  And yet the disc is a real feast.  It is one of the most striking of recent releases and can lay claim to the title ‘album of the year’.  The three musicians are able to combine multiple relationships while shifting between different layers of sound.  Thomas Lehn’s synthesiser plays the role of the first violin, linking and balancing Minton’s vocals with the rasping trumpet of Dörner.  On both pieces the musicians give each other plenty of space and obviously enjoy their interactions with each other.  Time and again the two Germans find ways of containing the physicality of Minton’s textural sounds in an almost clinical way.  This album is hugely pleasurable and provides us with two electroacoustic masterpieces.”                                                              Dennis Vederko, Machine Room

“A second release from TOOT - the inspired coming together of Axel Dörner’s trumpet, Thomas Lehn’s analogue synthesiser and Phil Minton’s inimitable voice.  Two lengthy improvisations, recorded with vivid clarity that’s almost tactile.  No one can match Minton in the role of park bench visionary, giving eccentric voice to the world’s cryptic signals and the body’s fleshy mysteries.  But Dörner and Lehnare sparking from the same outsider circuit.  There’s a real sense of complicity in their approach, a shared language of vaporousexhalations, low murmurs and judders, hums, groans, farts and other explosive outbursts.  It’s the language common to spittle and synapse, drool and neural network - sounds of the body electric.  Freedom of association is one of the great regenerative strengths of improvised music, but the affinities within TOOT are so readily audible that you feel it’s a triothat just had to happen, and had to succeeed as it does.”  
Julian Cowley, The Wire