Wooli Duo - Wooli [Hajodo Records]

Put out on the circuit on March 13th, 2k26 via Hajodo Records is the self-titled debut album by Wooli Duo, the self-proclaimed Avantgarde Folk duo comprised of Taiwanese pipa player Fan-Qi Wu and Norwegian drummer Michael Lee Sørenmo who are drawing inspiration from traditional East Asian music, Free Improv and experimental music whilst being joined in their efforts by South Korean double bass player dongyi on cuts like "Colonial" and Italy's Simone Bottasso providing additional organetto lines on "Roots". Opening with "Dare To Wish" the duo brings forth a piece providing a highly dynamic contrast between tender string pluckings and astoundingly muscular, certainly Rock-oriented and even funky AF passages including heavy drums and rather intense quasi-riffing whereas "Colonial" presents an amalgamation of bowed strings, rather elegic emotional atmospheres and spiralling dreamlike harmonies before "Roots" fully indulges in most beautiful contemplative melodic minimalism, leaving plenty of room for an innocent, almost rural atmosphere to unfold which stays present even when the piece is picking up pace, tempo and intensity later on. Furthermore "Traditional Rock" weighs in rather intense and urgent repetetive string treatments before adding intricate, yet playful and highly detailed melodic explorations and short improvised uptempo bursts to the mix only to fall back to stripped down and subdued drum improvisations towards the end, "Sketches" explores somewhat off-kilter, skeletal, somewhat eerie and futuristic sonic structures whilst the concluding cut named "Facing" leads to a rather hypnotic finale with its aggressive bow scrapings and thunderous drum rumblings just to name a few. If you've been drawn in expecting Folk in a Western sense and tradition you might've come to the wrong place. This being said, if you're a connaisseur of Modern Composition and well versed in Contemporary Classical as well as Avantgarde eclecticisms and, probably, Minimal Chamber Music this might be an album worth exploring.