ting ting jahe 18 (16)

The entire experience of listening to this CD, a bit more than a half
an hour in length, could not be bettered were Rita Hayworth to arrive
at the listener's door during the final track, inebriated and bearing
gifts. Peaks of the so-called "experience" or time spent with this
2006 Ting Ting Jahe recording include wondering whether the player was
broken due to a very low volume level at outset as well as forgetting
entirely that a CD was playing at another point when things once again
began very quiet.

When a vaguely recorded conversation started taking place in the
background, it brought to mind a stark contrast between the utter
sharpness of musical decisions, movement and interaction and a feeling
of casualness that is so difficult to capture on a recording that its
actual existence is of great value. Everything that takes place here
seems to have been created out of noise: musical instruments are not
popping up and introducing themselves, what sounds like a violin could
easily be a wounded animal, it is hard to tell what but something with
fur on it.

The timing displayed by the three partners in sound is wonderful. Use
of space becomes particularly inspired more than halfway through.
Feedback, a dreaded sound because it suggests a lack of control, laces
the period prior to this with the torpor of a homicide cop on third
shift. A series of minute snippets, like someone testing a radio,
gives way to a feeling of momentum almost like space travel conjured
up out of sounds which in themselves are indistinct, such as clicking
or static. The listener is left spinning, giddy in the realization
that this particular recording will never really end. Despite that it
is hoped this unit is already at the tape recorders, working on a new
beginning.

Review by Eugene Chadbourne
allmusic.com