Memory Is an Elephant

Memory Is an Elephant lilts, skitters, and wails like the soundtrack to a flickering-yellow-subtitled Italian film as it unfolds the tale of a marching chamber orchestra of East European Gypsies improving klezmer-inflected bluegrass at the wake of Astor Piazzolla. Such gloriously peculiar diversity makes Tin Hat Trio’s debut of titillating tiptoe tango remarkably suitable for a gallery opening peopled with handsomely dressed avant-garde art scenesters clinking glasses or for accompaniment to a long, lonesome Sunday afternoon drive heading for parts unknown. The classically trained group creates a deftly engaging soundscape of movement, textures, and shading, and its combined bio of connections (including Bill Frisell, John Zorn, Philip Glass, Tom Waits, and Eugene Chadbourne) reads like a who’s who of contemporary musical giants. Guitarist and primary songsmith Mark Orton lays down the bones of this intricately composed collection while Karla Kihlstedt’s violin and Rob Burger’s accordion nestle into gorgeously complex melodic tension countered with the extraordinary daring thrill of aural kite-tricks flying high and wide across the open sky. –Paige La Grone