LINA ALLEMANO trumpet ROB CLUTTON bass, composition RYAN DRIVER human voice, analogue synth, piano TIM POSGATE banjo, guitar
Bassist Rob Clutton has been a generous and inspiring contributor to Toronto creative music for decades. Cluttertones is a chamber jazz quartet that exquisitely synthesizes his diverse interests – song, long-form composition, lyricism, extended improvisation, extreme textures, and more – through his seasoned bandmates, Lina Allemano (trumpet), Ryan Driver (analogue synthesizer, piano, voice), and Tim Posgate (guitar, banjo). Cluttertones music reveals itself slowly, making countless subtle, mysterious insinuations in place of bold declarations. Disarmingly gorgeous melodies emerge from the fog of thorny group playing, often evoking the simplicity of folk music.
The group has been playing together for nearly a decade, and each of the members have long associations with the others in various projects. This music plays at the edges between known/unknown, concrete/abstract, solo/group, expression/process. Drawing from a broad range of experience—which includes jazz, European classical music, electronica, improvisation, folk, singer-songwriter, experimental—the Cluttertones play what some have called “otherworldly chamber music.”
