Zhu Wenbo, Jun-Y Ciao

Tip! In "Handle, Nail and Rubber Dinosaur", Jun-Y Ciao plays soprano saxophone and Zhu Wenbo plays clarinet. Before recording there was very little pre-planning, the only decision was that they each play a few short passages. They recorded a single take, during which there were some naturally occurring pauses and breaks – these make up the first 13 tracks of the album. After that they decided to make another recording with a more defined limitation: they maintain fixed fingerings, limiting the scope of the performance to breathing and embouchure. Juxtaposing two co-occurring performances to produce a third sound form is an improvised music strategy that Jun-Y Ciao and Zhu Wenbo have been using for many years now, and the title of the album is a play on this theme. They contributed one word each, and the two words led to the third word: a handle fixed to a drawer with nails, inside the drawer a toy dinosaur was found.