CRYPT
          Alex Ward / John Bisset
          acoustic guitars

          1.   Flush
          2.   Pairs
          3.   Two for his Heels
          4.   Pairs Royal
          5.   The Crib
          6.   Fifteen two
          7.   Muggins
          8.   Fifteen four
          9.   fifteen six
          10. One for his nob

Third in the 'Home Series' of duo recordings made by John Bisset at the birth town of his collaborator.
Alex was born and raised in Grantham, Lincolnshire. At home for Christmas he was joined by John for a session in St.Wulfrum’s Church Crypt on the 2^nd January 2003 (a date which pleased the numerologists in  the 2:13 office)

Alex is familiar to us all as an improvising clarinetist, having released cds with Derek Bailey, Steve Noble and others. As a guitarist he played with rock band Camp Blackfoot and with John’s urban surf group Pocket. Clearly the two enjoy playing together and take a particular delight in dodging around in the musical no-mans land between harsh abstract free impro and lilting trad jazz.

The titles of tracks in the previous cds in this series were translated into the mother tongue of John’s collaborator. Here the titles are scores from Cribbage – a game played by Alex’s father and grandfather, whose strange jargon resonated in young Alex’s ears as he grew up.

The pair also thought the reference to a game was quite appropriate to the pendulemic structure of the improvisations. Light hearted as it is the whole stands in the context of mortality – as fully detailed in the inner sleeve notes.

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