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Kevin Kastning / Carl Clements / Soheil Peyghambari — Triple Helix
(Greydisc GDR3592, 2025, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-03-05

Triple Helix Cover art

Soheil Peyghambari is an Iranian woodwind player now based in Paris, best known for his work on clarinet and bass clarinet. Kevin Kastning and Peyghambari collaborated as a duo on The First Realm, an album that was released back in 2021. Carl Clements is a saxophone player who has collaborated with Kastning numerous times over the years, most recently on Partitas, Book 1 from December 2024; like Kastning, he is based in the northeast United States, a member of the faculty of Amherst College. Kastning should be known to all regular readers of Exposé, playing numerous guitars of his own creation, plus piano, bass, mandolin, and much more. Triple Helix is the first time these three players have collaborated together — hopefully  there will be more in the not-too-distant future. For the six tracks on Triple Helix, Kastning plays 17-string subcontraguitar, 18-string contraguitar, 28-string double contraguitar, and 36-string double contraguitar; Clements plays tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones; and Peyghambari plays clarinet and bass clarinet. The gentle touch of the various guitars and multiple woodwinds definitely gives this endeavor a chamber feel, beautiful, soft, and eloquent, without any rough edges or sharp angles; the sounds flow all around the listener, offering a respite from any impending chaos, a time-out if you will. Gentle, colorful melodies follow one another, creations spun in real time by the three protagonists who have a natural and instinctive telepathic ability to create music on the spot (perhaps some basic planning preceded the performances), though everything goes down so smoothly one has to wonder if perhaps there were some charts involved. Titles like “Orthagonal Matrix,” “Molecular Folded,” and album closer “Scalene Torsion” don’t really offer much in the way of ideas as to what they might sound like, but be reassured that every tasty twisty turn along this path of never-repeating ideas goes far to soothe the soul.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Kevin Kastning, Carl Clements, Soheil Peyghambari

More info
http://kevinkastning.bandcamp.com/album/triple-helix

 

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