Everyone has their own little rituals and traditions for commemorating life's great moments, turning points, and rites of passage. What does Lee Ranaldo do in such an event? Not surprisingly, he does an improv set at the Knitting Factory. In 1994, after friend and tourmate Kurt Cobain's body was found, he gave an elliptic but impassioned sermon along with William Hooker that became the album Envisioning. And last year, the day after his wedding to longtime partner and collaborator Leah Singer, Ranaldo played a "wedding set" with Hooker and Christian Marclay. Some honeymoon, eh?

Bouquet preserves the results of Ranaldo's wedding performance. The set has been filed into seven untitled parts here-- a much more convenient method of cataloging than the 1995 Zeena Parkins/Hooker/Ranaldo collaboration, Gift of Tongues, which was separated into merely two tracks, the second being the aptly-titled 50-minute plodder, "Stamina."

Here, the third wheel of Hooker and Ranaldo's vehicle is avant-garde turntablist Christian Marclay. And, despite touting lesser renown than the other members of the trio, Marclay is clearly the star of the affair. "Part 1" opens with a flowery orchestral sample that segues into a quietly building cacophony with atmosphere provided by Ranaldo's bells and "small devices." Marclay's unorthodox source material purportedly consists of broken fragments of different records that have been glued together. This lends an alien tone to the sounds he contributes, to the degree that it's anyone's guess what instruments might have been played on whatever he's spinning. But Marclay retains a better sense of flow and continuity than most non-hip-hop scratchers, and his lightly clicking loops lock into William Hooker's barely contained intensity.

Hooker is more restrained on Bouquet than usual, but from the get-go, his pulsing, minimal rhythms threaten to snap forward like an attacker lurking in the bushes. By "Part 4," he's in full thrust, thrashing this way and that, inventing time signatures and pushing Ranaldo to up the ante with his own woozy guitar tones. Marclay gradually begins to drop in more recognizable textures from opera and free-jazz sax, and Hooker arranges suitable rhythms around them. Before long, Marclay's enhancements begin to work into something of a groove, with Ranaldo's whining feedback steering them this way and that.

On "Part 6," Bouquet's longest and most guitar-centric track, Ranaldo finally puts the focus on himself. He lays out a tumbling melodic passage during which Marclay and Hooker respectfully hold back their bags of tricks and simply whir around him. Later in the song, Marclay finds an opening in the wall of noise and lays down a nicely placed sample from the intro of Sonic Youth's "Candle." Sure, it's actually Thurston's riff, but it's essential in elevating the track to a near-climax as it adapts itself, chameleon-like, to its surroundings.

Even at its most shapeless and off-the-cuff, this performance is far more engaging than Sonic Youth's dreadful recent offering. Ranaldo's guitar craftsmanship is stellar as always, and much more inventive than on past improvisational outings. And as a celebration of the ceremonious bond between Ranaldo and the mother of his new son, Bouquet makes for a far more sentimental gift than pearl necklaces and emerald earrings.

-Al Shipley