Triple Helix :: Reviews and Quotes

Kevin Kastning / Carl Clements / Soheil Peyghambari: Triple Helix (2025)

The latest album from Kevin Kastning (36-string Double Contraguitar, 28-string Double Contraguitar, 18-string Contraguitar, 17-string Subcontraguitar) finds him again working with Carl Clements (Tenor, Alto, and Soprano saxophones), but for the first time he has also involved Iranian clarinetist Soheil Peyghambari (Bass Clarinet, B♭ clarinet). Normally the recordings take place with the musicians in the same room, but with three different studios at play this time I am not sure how the recording was undertaken. Certainly, there are sections where the woodwind instruments combine in a manner which sound either scored or one has heard what the other has already performed and then adjusted their melody to match. Sound wise it feels as if some of this was rehearsed, others not, and then the three combined with the assistance of modern technology (and plenty of bandwidth) to record their parts when playing with each other in different geographical locations.

Carl and Soheil easily swap leads, combine on harmonies, take breaks to let the other shine, and then under it is all is Kevin providing the depth and colour which makes the sound far broader and more intense. He also knows when his role is to sit back and let the others play alone, so much so that with every participant fully understanding the need for space it feels at times as if there is a fourth musician in the room whose role is to provide the silence which allows everything else to shine more brightly. Soheil has easily fitted into the duo, with Carl and Kevin giving him every opportunity to be a full musical contributor as opposed to an outsider and the result is fluid, compelling and intriguing. As with all of Kevin's albums, one never really knows what to expect apart from it will be interesting and fascinating and needs to be played on headphones and really listened to as opposed to becoming some background noise. By doing this one will be taken to a different musical world where musicianship and originality are valued, and that is certainly somewhere I wish to stay.

- Kev Rowland
  House of Prog Radio magazine  (UK, New Zealnd)
  February 2025

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


by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-03-05

"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."

- Exposé Magazine (US)
  April 2025

 

KEVIN KASTNING, CARL CLEMENTS & SOHEIL PEYGHAMBARI – TRIPLE HELIX (Greydisc) (2025)  by Benedict Jackson

Kevin Kastning once again plays various types of contraguitars on this collaboration with saxophonist Carl Clements, with whom he has worked on and off for twenty years, and clarinettist Soheil Peyghambari whose playing I know from releases featuring Tony Levin and Markus Reuter.

Unique and innovative are adjectives rightfully used to describe the music of Triple Helix which could just as easily be classified as modern classical as jazz and all points in-between. I would describe the music as more of a sonic rather than melodic listening experience, that is akin to a series of six tone poems, Clements employing alto, soprano and tenor saxes, Peyghambari bass and Bb clarinets, important nuances in widening the musical palette in addition to the four possibilities offered by four contraguitars varying from 17 to 36 strings. The synergy between the musicians can be heard throughout an engaging album, creating a natural ambience that will reward multiple listens: the exchanges between the clarinet and sax on ‘Second Chirality’ to Kastning’s sympathetic guitar undertow being as good an example as any if a sample track is needed.

 - Dimensions in Sound and Space  (Scotland)
   April 2025