Magic at play

'Crisis," a song on the new CD by the trio 2 Foot Yard, bristles with primal punk urgency, the emotions see-sawing between one protagonist eager to test her mettle and another overwhelmed into flight-or-fight mode. That's followed by "Plane Song," an eerie chamber-pop ditty about a small boy's fear of flying that is both ominous and sweet, like a Tim Burton film. And that's followed by "Drizzle," which goes from brushed cymbals and pizzicato cello into torrid cabaret or circus music, like a merry-go-round spun amok.

No wonder Carla Kihlstedt, the violinist, vocalist and founder of 2 Foot Yard, describes the CD, "Borrowed Arms," as "a constellation of songs," each inhabiting its "own sound world."

She calls 2 Foot Yard's method a series of "happy accidents," referring to the way she and cellist/vocalist Marika Hughes and percussionist/guitarist Shahzad Ismaily fell in together so naturally after Kihlstedt recruited them, without knowing them well, to play on what was supposed to be her solo record.

Instead, it became 2 Foot Yard's eponymous debut in 2003. And there does seem to be providential magic at play, judging from Hughes' description of how the new album's final song, "The Great Escape," was made.

"We turned off the lights, and Shahzad came up with this wonderful melody, and out of nowhere Carla started singing these lyrics that matched the melody perfectly, and I came up with a countermelody," said Hughes, speaking by phone from her home in New York.

The raw and the refined

To ascribe 2 Foot Yard's distinctive porridge of tunes and textures to happy accidents, dumb luck or even divine intervention does a disservice to their acute intuition and the strength of their hybrid. Both Kihlstedt and Hughes were schooled in the Suzuki approach of early immersion in classical music and have been a part of numerous chamber ensembles.

This blend of rawness and refinement is often immediately apparent, as Hughes, who enjoys using her cello like a bass, opens with precise, plucked notes while Ismaily delivers a more polyrhythmic, cross-cutting fusillade influenced by his Pakistani heritage (also reflected in his sensitive contributions on guitar). Likewise, Kihlstedt and Hughes sometimes play in sync on hurried, cacophonous phrases, and then follow Ismaily's lead in and out of entropy.

Geography is another factor in the group dynamic. Ever since Hughes moved from California's East Bay area back to her native New York a few years ago, 2 Foot Yard has been a bicoastal band -- no minor complication for an ensemble that generally composes collectively.

Booed in Bush's home state

Besides musical telepathy, they share a kindred political spirit. For every copy of "Borrowed Arms" sold, they donate 50 cents to sustainable-agriculture and nutrition projects in New York and California. They have set E.E. Cummings' antiwar poem "Red-Rag & Pink-Flag" to music, and their song "Whistle Past the Graveyard" (with lyrics by Hughes) takes aim at President Bush's role in the war in Iraq.

"We've talked about it as a band," Hughes confirmed. "We don't want to alienate anybody but we also don't want to censor who we are. We live in a bubble around California and New York, and I think it is important to say what we believe in places where we might be challenged. We were booed in Houston and some people left the show in Sheboygan, Wis. But I just got off the road with Mary J. Blige, who talks about how her father was screwed up by Vietnam, and just says, 'Don't let that happen to another generation in Iraq,' and gets a big response."

There is a political dimension to that, Hughes agreed: "We in the band are Generation X, the so-called 'slackers.' I guess I'm not surprised that that song affects people as we think about what has been lost, especially after eight years of George Bush."