MATTHEW BOURNE, EMIL KARLSEN - The Embalmer

"Matthew Bourne and Emil Karlsen turn the piano-drums duo into something unusually tense, tactile, and alive, finding a striking balance between force and restraint. Bourne treats the piano as both resonant body and percussion instrument, pulling out low-end rumbles, prepared-string clatter, and fleeting melodic fragments, while Karlsen answers with drumming that is all texture, pressure, and finely judged disruption rather than simple pulse. What makes The Embalmer so compelling is the way its volatility never slips into chaos; even at its most abrasive, the duo sustains a feeling of shape, tension, and close listening, making these improvisations feel less like open-ended sketches than fully inhabited, strangely intimate encounters."