Weekend Roundup: Peira records ... a tiny and excellent label for improvised music

By Paolo Casertano

First, an overview...

Brian Labycz, a Chicago-based improviser mainly performing on electronics, is the name behind the constant growth of Peira, the brilliant label that has - especially in the last months - released  a consistent number of interesting works in the field of improvised music. The minimal layout of the label’s website, the sober and basic covers of the releases (just surnames, not even names for the artists), together with a fair pricing policy for the CD-r limited editions, illustrate the label’s clear intention to stay focused just on the essentials.

The improvised and experimental music comes mainly from young musicians. Few words and many facts!

With an actual catalogue of fifteen titles, Peira may already count on the repeated presence of important and widely known musicians such as the great cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, the many-sided trumpeter Nate Wooley - who proabaly released his most daring and conceptual solo work '[8] Syllables’ on the label (and one of my favorites), the noteworthy double bassist Jason Roebke and the innovative bassoonist Katherine Young. As well as on the recurring involvement of the founder himself in many of these projects. We take here the chance to spend a few words about some of its latest releases. In reverse chronological order.

Russell, Lonberg-Holm - Home (Peira, 2012)***

Fred Lonberg-Holm is a great cellist. John Russell a great guitarist. Their interplay is convincing and makes this is a good album. My ambition is to reach one day this level of pithy reviewing.  By now I’m still lost in my tender wordiness.

The two musicians show a perfect control over the variance of dynamics that such a long improvising dialogue asks to keep the listener’s attention alive (whoever has survived to this knows it pretty well). The opening and almost 28-minutes long 'Emsket' is a perpetual rollercoaster of pianissimo and ostinato. Sometimes the pizzicato is so dense and minimal that you lose the perception of the role of the two instruments. Russell often plays on harmonics, while the distinguishing sharp bowing of Lonberg-Holm invites and challenges the guitarist’s arpeggios to grow in volume and weight in the developing composition. The capacity to dialogue at each level and on every sonic field explodes in the central part of 'Moorit' where the two masters face each other mainly through the scrapes and the thumping of Lonberg-Holm and the metal slides and the dry chording of Russell. I really like the sort of modern manouche interaction they set in the first half of 'Mioget'. Who snores and then coughs from 11m20s to 11m30s? Is it intentional?


Mythic Birds - The Name By Which The World Knows Them (Peira, 2012)***½

Mythic birds have a peculiar line-up. A bass clarinet trio - Jason Stein, Jeff Kimmel and Keefe Jackson, with the latter sometimes also on contrabass clarinet - enhanced by the modular synth of the label’s founder Brian Labycz. I’ll be honest. I’ve never established a good relationship with the clarinet - especially with the members of the family starting from alto going up (and luckily here we have just the 'low' part of the family represented). I guess this is due to its hybrid acoustic nature, not really a saxophone nor a trumpet. Obviously this is just a limit of my musical comprehension. I was then a bit scared at first. And I was wrong.

For sure on this album these instruments are not used in a conventional way. They basically build a very motley trestle where the synth of Labycz slots in. Sometimes the brass section goes for really syncopated rhythms using slap tonguing, fingering on the buttons and far inkling of suffocated notes as in 'Forbidden Generosity', in other moments  - as in the first half of 'Let go of the long tone' - the intertwining of melodic phrasings bring us to really open and enjoyable jazzy (I’m short of other adjectives) musical landscapes. In both cases the constant and sophisticated texture added by Labycz’s synth is really rich and powerful, although never overwhelming.  In the longest 'Dissimulation' the two aspects cohabitate, and especially in the second half of the track the consistency of the synth emerges in all its variety.

It’s now several months that I write on these pages and it’s not a mystery anymore that I’m pretty fond of all these little bothering noises as beeps, whistles, buzzes, vibes, thumps, scratches, AM interferences, chirps, scrapes, hiccups and probably little farts (let’s admit it!). Labycz has a great control over the choices and the presence of these inlays in the development of each composition. This is a great quality.

Maybe I should change my minds about clarinets. Maybe just a little bit.

Bear, Bertucci Duo - Controlled Burn (Peira, 2012) ***½

Ed Bear is on baritone sax and Lea Bertucci on bass clarinet. Their compelling blend is frequently enriched by vibraphone and AM radio textures. I don’t know much about the two musicians but they have clearly developed a solid interplay from the former experience in the duo by the name of TwistyCat, credited of several releases since 2008. Extended techniques, although present, are never overused.

A good example is provided by the second track 'Scelsi Girl' - that I assume is named after the great composer Giacinto Scelti. The two instruments face each other with long growing notes, sounding as guitar feedbacks or analogic synths, up to a meeting point where they reconnect. Likewise in the third track 'Tooth', while the sax is building the main melody through trills and trembling layers, the clarinet is far playing on very long notes. Then they suddenly and surprisingly join to offer inlays of melodic phrasings in the final part.

Controlled Burn is the right title for the album. There’s often the feeling that the cutting landscapes slowly built by the two instruments are going to explode, but then as the tension inflates the players progressively subtract elements from their construction. The sound is thick and pauses and silences are relevant parts of the structure. The musicians perfectly alternate with each other working on microtonalities and providing from time to time melodies or background noises to the composition . The album has the great value to be really accessible and pleasurable. And even the nice traditional arrangement of the short track called 'Fanfare' finds its place.


Naranjo, Stankova, Young Trio - Verdure Into Onyx (Peira, 2012) **½

In this experimental trio Ivan Naranjo is credited with electronics, Maria Stankova with voice and electronics and Katherine Young with bassoon and electronics. The original bassoonist has been already and repeatedly reviewed here on the blog.

The quality of the sound is excellent but the work is marked - in my opinion - by an underlying sketchiness. This is particularly evident in a long composition as 'Septiembre cinco', where Stankova with her voice and Young on the bassoon give life to some interesting passages, strengthening and altering their respective tones with the help of electronics, while Naranjo provides the noisy background. The amalgam of directions and musical visions you should expect from the development of the piece seems never to take place in a cohesive way.  I could not find more information about the genesis of such a project, but my belief is intensified by a careful listening of the three tracks equally named 'Reconstruction' in which each musician performs in a short solo set. All three of them are pleasurable and in some way more coherent than the trio tracks. Maybe for once the whole is less than the sum of its parts.


Lonberg-Holm, Strid duo – Discus And Plumbing (Peira, 2012) ***½

By Philip Coombs

This meeting between Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello) and Raymond Strid (drums) on the label Peira conjures up an image of two kids playing with a box of elastics. They occasionally snap there own and each others fingers by accident but mostly they just admire the friction, resistance and stretch that can be produced by a rubber band.

They revel in the sounds of things about to break, not the volume of the structural failure itself. Lonberg-Holm pushes the cello to its straining point but not it's breaking point. He pulls it back before then. Even on 'Oerter', we get a little taste of his classical side.

Strid runs the gamut from crisp bells and cymbals to tick tocks of old clocks right down to the sub bass effect on his kick drum that just fills your head with sound.

Together they flirt with not only classical but they also share some heavier moments (when they cook, they really cook) as well as some haunting cinematic soundscapes. They do this while always sounding together and always pushing the elastic band to its limit.



The label provides both previews and selling of physical or digital releases

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Josh Berman & His Gang -There Now (Delmark, 2012) ***½

By Philip Coombs

I bought this recording hoping to have a fun listen, a guilty pleasure as it were, without having to think too much about it. This album looked like the perfect way to accomplish just that. Six Chicagoan standards mixed with a couple of originals with no intentions of writing a review or pondering metaphors and alliteration would make for a perfect lazy afternoon.

Clearly, that didn't happen. What I did get was a surprising and impressive piece of work played by a group of musicians who know how to bounce between jazz genres in a convincing and passionate way. It is that dedication to authenticity that made it worth dusting off the old pencil and write this review.
Josh Berman (cornet) and his Gang, comprising of Jeb Bishop (trombone), Guillermo Gregorio (clarinet), Jason Stein (bass clarinet), Keefe Jackson (tenor saxophone), Jason Adasiewicz (vibraphone), Joshua Abrams (bass) and Frank Rosaly (drums), lead me through, and ultimately convinced me, that wherever they were, they were There Now.

On track one, 'Love is just Around the Corner', Stein starts us off with a rather unconventional start to Berman's vision, a bass clarinet solo before the Gang blast it's way through the tune's melody with all guns blazing. 'Sugar' is Rosaly's nod to the big band drummers while keeping it as fresh and new as possible.

'Cloudy', on paper, seems destined for a train wreck to the highest degree. What starts our as a full band free jazz volume fest with each member contributing quality to the noise, the track turns around on a snap of the fingers. Here comes the train. As Rosaly and Abrams chug along with a stellar groove, the horns veer off track and start heading into free territory again. Berman slowly puts on the conductor's hat and manages to keep both trains side by side as they head for the station proving that this track and Berman's vision can be both There Now and There Now at the same time producing very pleasant results.

It is this ability to one foot in the past and one in the future that not only keeps this recording relevant but also brings a lot of enjoyment.

Can be purchased through the label.

Here is the Gang with 'Cloudy':

© stef

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Mikołaj Trzaska Ircha Clarinet Quartet* ‎– Zikaron Lefanay (Kilogram, 2012) *****

By Stef   

Last year, Polish clarinetist Mikołaj Trzaska released the first and second album by his clarinet quartet, called IRCHA, the first - "Lark Uprising" with Joe McPhee and the second, "Watching Edvard" as a real quartet. The band consists of Mikołaj Trzaska on bass clarinet and Bb metal clarinets, Michał Górczyński on Bb and bass clarinets, Paweł Szamburski on Bb and bass clarinets, and Wacław Zimpel on alt, Bb, bass clarinets and tarogato.

The music though, is completely different than on the previous albums. These offered pretty abstract improvisations, and "Watching Edvard" offered  a series of quite distinct, almost situational theatrical conversations between the four instruments. On Zikaron Lefanaj (Hebrew for "Memory Before Me", if I can trust what I find on internet), the mission is grander and spiritual, much in the same vein as Waclaw Zimpel's music with Hera, offering long pieces with clear melodies and themes, full of subdued passion and reverence, spiritual longing and the kind of sadness that is inherent in klezmer music.

Strangely enough, the music also reminds me of the famous Flemish polyphony of the 15th Century, in which male voices sing different melodies yet in harmony, at that time a musical innovation. You can find an example in this Youtube video, the music of my catholic Flemish ancestors (not that I care very much), but it shows the deep spiritual universality that can come with music.

Back to Ircha, the music is just baffling, stunning ... by the beauty of the compositions, the way they are played, the coherence of the interplay, as in the combination of subdued control and raw expressivity. It is jazz after all, and possibly even too avant-garde for real jazz fans at that. It can be moving and tearing you apart at the same time. Calming and distressing. Comforting and challenging.

But it all comes from a deep well : traditional gypsy music (as in "Red Shoes"), jewish music ( as in "Nigun Number 115") and Armenian traditionals (as in "Akhtamar" - if interested you can read Akhtamar's original story here), but the traditionals add to the flavor, and the band's compositions can easily stand the comparison.

The quartet manages to create a totally new sound, a kind of synthesis of centuries of spiritual music, but then brought with a clear look at the future possibilities of expression. Zikaron Lefanaj, indeed! Magnificent music.

Highly recommended!

  © stef

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Pretty Monsters (Public Eyesore, 2012) ****½

By Stef  

It doesn't happen often that you listen to an album wondering what the hell is happening here. Pretty Monster's debut album is one of those albums. You hear lots of familiar stuff, some jazz, some rock, some classical even, but then everything is stretched and mangled to fit another sound purpose, something strange, unique and compelling, covered with a sauce of noise, and all that without losing a coherent sense of lyricism that ties the entire album together.

The band offering you this wonderful stew are Katherine Young on bassoon and electronics, Erica Dicker on violin, Owen Stewart-Robertson on guitar and electronics, and Mike Pride on drums and percussion.

I have expressed my appreciation for Katherine Young in previous reviews, and on this album she pushes her own personal vision even further, and the description of her music she puts in her bio is actually quite accurate : "creates acoustic and electro-acoustic music that uses curious timbres, expressive noises, and kinetic structures to explore the dramatic materiality of sound, constantly shifting ensemble energies, and the tension between the familiar and the strange". Young and Dicker have both studied at the Oberlin College and Conservatory and have worked with Anthony Braxton.

The first track, "Relief", sets the tone for the album. A single simple phrase from the bassoon is thrown in the air for violin and guitar to repeat and change as and when they see fit, yet the sounds then move towards a tuneless floating drone, out of which the initial phrase resurrects.  It's not complex, it's quite effective.

"Patricia Highsmith" offers the musical equivalent of the American author's novels, full of changes, odd twists and turns, halting rhythms, suspenseful uncertainty and destroyed lives.

"Feldspar" is more rockish, and could be a King Crimson tune, full of stubborn and wayward violence.

"Crushed" starts with a  repetitive violin phrase, with minor alterations in the way of Philip Glass, mesmerizing and unnerving, increasingly moving into noisy screaches, while the guitar starts playing a beautiful arpeggiated chord progression, more rock than jazz, with chimes adding sweet touches, until out of nowhere a tsunami of noise arises, muting all other sounds, and when the wave has passed, only mutilated memories of the theme remain.

"For Astronauts And Travellers" offers shimmering sounds, floating somewhere, unattached to anything, with the bassoon leading the way through galaxies of crackling noise and spacy tones, strangely interrupted at the end by the drums playing a military march.

On "Deuterium", a slow and raw metallic chord progression of the guitar is joined by the beautiful and sweet repetitive phrases of the violin, seemingly going nowhere until halfway through the track Mike Pride starts adding small percussive effects, then the whole thing stops when the low bassoon sounds act as an intruder, creating some chaos into the action, until slowly and obstinately, the guitar and violin recover from the shock and continue their bizarre dance, yet with a little less enthusiasm, with a little more sadness.

"Entropy" starts with heavy drum beats full of dramatic effect, rather than rhythmic, attracting nightmarish sounds from guitar violin bassoon electronics, which coalesce then the guitar chooses sides with the drums joining the same beat while bassoon and violin fade away in horror.

The whole thing is beyond categorization, but it shows something else, a new sound that is as eclectic as it is creative and compelling. The musicianship is excellent, but their skill, and even their active participation, is totally functional for the musical vision, which offers something like short stories, with instruments like characters moving through a plot, with changing perspectives, different psychologies, conflicting interests and developing into unexpected endings and resolutions.

Surely a major contender for this year's Happy New Ears award.


. © stef

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HAPPY NEW EARS AWARD 2012

Hi everyone!

Here we are again with our highly contested yet equally enjoyable HAPPY NEW EARS AWARD for the most innovative listening experience of the year. This is how it works. We present you below a longlist of albums that meet the criteria of having offered a new, novel, creative, innovative approach and perspective to music. This is not necessarily the best album of the year, but it should create a feeling with the listener of hearing something surprising, never heard before, discomforting or comforting in a different way, yet with an attractiveness and fascination that makes you want to hear it again and again.

Here is the currently proposed list.

1. Katherine Young's Pretty Monsters (still to be reviewed)
2. Mikolaj Trzaska's Ircha - Zikaron Lefanaj (still to be reviewed)
3. Thomas Heberer's Clarino - Cookbook
4. Eve Risser - En Corps
5. Pão 
6. Foxes Fox - Live At The Vortex
7. Joe Morris - Graffiti in Two Parts (still to be reviewed)
8. MMM Quartet (Léandre, Curran, Frith, Leimgruber), Live at the Metz’ Arsenal 
9. Veryan Weston, Ingrid Laubrock, Hannah Marshall - Haste
10. RED Trio + Nate Wooley
11. Muringa - The Unknown Knowns 
12. Eivind Opsvik - Overseas IV
13. Skogen - Ist Gefallen In Den Schnee
14. John Butcher and Toshimaru Nakamura - Dusted Machinery 
15. Tim Berne - Snake Oil
16. Levity - Afternoon Delights 
17. Stian Westerhus - The Matriarch And The Wrong Kind Of Flowers
18. Evan Parker, Okkyung Lee, Peter Evans – The Bleeding Edge
19. Nicole Mitchell - Arc of O
20. Steve Lehman Trio - Dialect Fluorescent
21. Daniel Erdmann - How to Catch a Cloud
22. Emile Parisien - Chien Guepe
23. Aram Shelton Quartet - Everything for Somebody
24. Matthew Shipp Trio - Elastic Aspects
25. Max Johnson Quartet
26. Nate Wooley - The Almond
27. Joe McPhee/Eli Keszler - Ithaca
28. Stephen O'Malley & Steve Noble - St. Francis Duo
29. Fire! feat. Oren Ambarchi - In the Mouth a Hand
30. Jon Irabagon - I Don't Hear Nothing But The Blues, Volume 2: Appalachian Haze

You can add albums for the longlist between now and the end of the week. We - the review team - will then reduce this list to a manageable shorter list. On this list the votes can be cast and we will have the winner by year-end.

Many thanks in advance for the suggestions.

Joe, Paul, Stef

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The Group: Live (NoBusiness, 2012) ****½

By Martin Schray

Very often I have expressed my admiration for the Lithuanian label NoBusiness, out there in Europe’s wild east Danas Mikailionis and Valerij Anosov have been doing a marvelous job for this music we all adore. On the one hand they release new music of great bands like Tarfala Trio and The Thing or they support local greats like Liudas Mockunas, on the other hand they try to release legendary, almost forgotten tapes. Especially close to their hearts seems to be the time of the late 1970s and early 80s, which you can see at their releases of Billy Bang’s Survival Ensemble’s Black Man’s Blues, William Parker’s Centering, and Warner/Freeman/Spigner’s Freestyle Band - all lost gems. Another seminal, yet unrecorded, band of this era was The Group.

Today it seems hard to believe that such a band was not able to get a record deal because with Ahmed Abdullah (tr), Marion Brown (sax), Billy Bang (v), Andrew Cyrille (dr), Sirone and Fred Hopkins (b) we are talking about a supergroup here. But times were changing in the 1980s, which Abdullah points out in his excellent liner notes (the 26 pages were worth the price for the album alone). Ronald Reagan and his neo-liberal economic agenda supported selfishness instead of communality and this was also visible in the jazz scene with the ascent of Wynton Marsalis, who opposed free jazz musicians fiercely (a fact which is bitterly deplored by Abdullah). So the music of The Group is also a reaction to these changes of the basic social conditions.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

It is deeply rooted in jazz tradition, which is audible at the highlight of this album: the band’s version of Charles Mingus’ Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, the bassist’s legendary tribute to the late Lester Young. Their version starts with a funeral march intro by Cyrille and Brown which reminds us why the song was originally written. But at the same time they add another element to this blues, and this is increased when the rest of the band joins in. It seems as if Ornette Coleman was playing this song (interestingly the band’s front line consists of the instruments Coleman plays), you can feel the sadness and the moaning for a lost friend but there is a good deal of anger about revisionism in society as well, especially Bang’s solo and the bass duet are enchanting and full of rage at the same time. The other pieces are Butch Morris’ Joann’s Green Satin Dress, Brown’s La Placita (a band’s favorite), Bang’s Shift Below and Miriam Makeba’s Amanpondo, a track list which reflects the band’s repertoire of outside compositions, standards and their own stuff. Shift Below is almost exclusively a piece for the strings in the band, the others only add touches of color here and there, it is a wonderful track based on a blues riff played by Bang. Abdullah’s arrangement of the Makeba song (which means “my ancestors visit me in my sleep” - if I can rely on a comment on youtube) brings the African roots to New York, it is a very rough and disharmonious version, but it transports optimism as well. Additionally, it is the track with the largest collective playing.

This is a wonderful record, a true missing link. The liner notes also mention that there is another Abdullah group in the waiting loop – The Melodic Art-Tet. I can hardly wait.

The Group Live is available on vinyl (limited as usual) and on CD.

Buy from the label nobusinessrecords.com or instantjazz.com.



© stef

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Bruno Duplant, Julien Héraud, Nate Wooley – Movement and Immobility (Peira, 2012) ***½

By Dan Sorrells

Movement and Immobility is a forced confrontation with sound. Though I’m not sure I can get fully behind the “total” acousmatic immersion that folks like Pierre Schaeffer and Francisco Lopez advocate, there are definitely times when yielding to sound in-and-of itself is a freeing, rewarding exercise. And sometimes, you don’t have much of a choice.

Much about Movement and Immobility is obscure: just what exactly Bruno Duplant’s “electroacoustic device” is, how much of the music is improvised, what has been processed in the studio after the fact, hell, even whether all of the musicians were ever in the same room to create it. I struggled with this when it came time to sit down and write. I debated sending emails, hunting down musicians, asking questions. Instead I listened to Movement and Immobility one more time. I listened, and I realized: it doesn’t matter. This is an album that’s less about human gestures and motivations and struggles than it is about pure sound. Sound as a complete environment, a complete experience.

In three long pieces, ideas are slowly repeated, revised, subtly reconstructed, bringing to mind the stoic focus of the minimalist composers and the aural depth sought in many works of ambient music. Héraud’s saxophone is the most easily identified element, though the long notes exist more as timbral coloring than anything else. “Continental Drift” hums and rumbles like the automated systems clicking on and off in the engine room of some spacecraft. Events start and stop on esoteric time tables, layers of ringing feedback multiplying and dropping away. Electronics and trumpet amplification seem to be a part of the process, but never in an obvious or straight-forward way. Occasionally, scrapes of percussion can be picked up, or the crackle of radio static seeping through the din of “Climate Disruption.”

In all, this is an interesting, immersive offering from musicians who frequently conjure up novel sounds. Somehow, Movement and Immobility sounds altogether different from all that they’ve shown us before. So strap on some headphones. Maybe even a blindfold, like a hardcore Schaefferian disciple.  I suspect they’ll surprise you again.

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Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz : Abraxas: The Book Of Angels Vol. 19 (Tzadik, 2012) ****

By Paul Acquaro

Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz's interpretations of John Zorn's second Masada book is a raucous one that is full of energy and urgency. In fact, the Tzadic website describes it well as the "most primal and tribal installments in the Book of Angels series"

This power quartet of sorts is Blumenkranz on the gimbri - a bass-like instrument from Morocco, Aram Bajakian and Eyol Maoz on very electric guitars, and Kenny Grohowski on drums. Sharing in some of the energy and rawness of Marc Ribot's Asmodeus, Abraxas devilishly mixes the dark klezmer melodies and rhythms with full on free-punk-jazz energy.

However, it would be quite wrong to lump the whole affair under a label like punk, which can suggest a certain well worn consistency. Songs like 'Yassreil' is atmospheric and mysterious, 'Muriel' blistering, and the 'Nahuriel' begins with a prog-rock like set of riffs before devolving into a whorl of distorted guitar. Suffice to say, at the tunes all have their own identity within an approach that is insidiously infectious.

Perhaps the relative simplicity of the gimibri could be seen as the core of the recording. It has three strings, one of which is a drone, and overall lends itself well to the looping bass lines of the songs. It is from these lines that Bajakian and Maoz spin feral melodies and Grohowski pushes them along deftly, like on 'Nachmiel', which starts with a comfortable melody and soon evolves into a multilayered free-rock affair.

There is a certain consistency to the music, there is a certain amount of cohesion that connects this book of songs, and there is a wonderful contrast between the delicately melodic and thrillingly thrashing.

 Subscribe

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Weekend Roundup: December 2, 2012

By Tom Burris

Angelica Sanchez Quintet  – Wires & Moss  (Clean Feed, 2012) ****

Angelica Sanchez is one of the main reasons that Rob Mazurek Pulsar Quartet's Stellar Pulsations is one of my favorite records of 2012.  Her sublime chord progressions and rhythmic jabs lie at the heart of what makes that great band work.  Basically, she's Mazurek's Herbie Hancock, freely pushing and pulling the other members of the group with intuitive grace.

On this, her fourth album as a leader, her approach isn't one of balance, but one of counterpoint – usually with guitarist Marc Ducret as her brilliant adversary.  Ducret plays angular, choppy figures against Sanchez's fluid, lyrical lines – and then they switch roles.  The duels manage to get very tangled, as the two musicians playing the chording instruments in the group.  The richness they create as they weave around each other is enchanting and spellbinding.

The themes don't jump out and announce themselves, but sneak up on you later – after you've stopped listening to the music - encouraging (and rewarding) many repeat listening sessions. Standout track and centerpiece, “Soaring Piasa,” builds into something approximating David S. Ware's classic quartet, which speaks volumes about the chemistry between the players.  (This might be a good place to mention that Tony Malaby is the saxophonist.)  Everything about this album just feels right.  

Read the full length review by Joe Higham.

Listen:

Wally Shoup & Paul Kikuchi – Aurora Distillations  (Prefecture, 2012) ***½
                  

                                                                          
In September 2010, Wally Shoup and Paul Kikuchi recorded a set of sax and percussion improvisations inside an abandoned train tunnel in Washington State.  The tunnel is 2.6 miles long, providing enough natural reverb to give the proceedings a dream-like aura.

Shoup is a spatial improviser, generally leaving plenty of silence on his canvas, which makes the location a natural setting for him.  This is my first exposure to Paul Kikuchi, who augments his drum kit with bells, ringers, and assorted clangers – and even a set of walkie-talkies.  His rapport with Shoup is one of such familiarity that based on this recording, one would assume they are brothers.  An interesting recording experiment and a good improv set.  Vinyl is limited to 250 copies, so hurry!

Watch:

Buy: http://wallyshoupandpaulkikuchi.bandcamp.com/


Dennis Rea / Wally Shoup / Tom Zgonc – Subduction Zone  (Nunatak, 2012) ***             
 

A trio recording by Rea (guitar), Shoup (alto sax), and Zgonc (drums) & the first release by the Nunatak label, Subduction Zone is where free jazz and avant rock intersect.  Rea's approach to the electric guitar is definitely rooted in the rock arena with the use of effects such as delay and assorted pedals.  Shoup is an expansive player from the world of free jazz; and Zgonc is a sympathetic and supportive ally in this unusual improvisational mash-up.  

To me, this disc sounds a bit disjointed until the third track, “Third Lung,” which soars so unexpectedly it takes a few seconds to recover from it.  The pieces fall together easily from this point forward, making me wonder if the tracks were sequenced in exactly the same order as they were recorded.  The highlight is the last track, “Memories of Mitchell,” that is so lumbering and spacious in its build-up you almost hope it never peaks.  To the group's great credit, it isn't a letdown when it does manage to finally reach the climax.  


Darius Jones Trio – Big Gurl (Smell My Dream)  (AUM Fidelity, 2011) ****
 

This second release from the Darius Jones Trio is from 2011, but since it has yet to be reviewed on this site, please indulge us while we take a look back at one of the most anticipated and enjoyable discs of last year.

The rhythm section on this round consists of Adam Lane (bass) and Jason Nazary (drums).  Jones has a big sound with no fear of vibrato - and no shortage of soulfulness – and, given his penchant for musical freedom, it's no surprise that Albert Ayler's name turns up when discussing Jones' sound.  I hear quite a bit of Anthony Braxton here as well though, especially on tracks like “A Train” and “I Wish I Had A Choice,” which sound like Braxton's group's mid-70s classic recordings for Arista.  Yes, the whole band.  Even the way Jones has reconstructed Billy Strayhorn's “Take the A Train” reminds me of vintage Braxton.

But don't think Jones is simply on a nostalgia trip.  This trio is alive!  Lane is an incredibly melodic bassist, a major asset to any piano-less trio.  Nazary plays with amazing precision; and the clamp he and Lane can put down whenever the mood strikes is stunning.  Jones also plays with very careful precision as well.  His is an interesting mixture of techniques from all across the reaches of jazz history.  “Ol' Metal-Faced Bastard” is a free jazz homage to hip-hop that sounds wobbly as hell, but is actually as straight as a pin.  Nazary's absolutely brilliant playing is the star here, giving the impression that the band is playing in a roomful of funhouse mirrors.

© stef

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Colin Stetson & Mats Gustafsson - Stones (Rune Grammofon, 2012) *****

Music for two saxophones and dialogue for two voices

By Martin Schray and Paolo Casertano
 
M - Whenever I listen to Mats Gustafsson or Colin Stetson I hear an enormous physicality. I imagine them headbanging to their own music, like these toy birds picking up food or water. And I see them struggling with their huge instruments, fascinated by the sounds their instruments can create. So, on the one hand their cooperation sounds like a match made in heaven but on the other hand their music is - despite all similarities - quite different. Gustafsson is notorious for his highly energetic style, he takes no prisoners, while Stetson seems to be more refined integrating minimal riffs and circular breathing. How do you feel about that, Paolo?

P - I agree with you, Martin. Let's compare, for example, the recently quoted “Needs” by Gustafsson with its buzzing engines to the melodic accessibility - and I say this as an absolute worthiness - of “New History Warfare Vol.2: Judges” by Stetson. For sure Gustafsson can boast on a far more extended discography than Stetson, spanning from traditional interpretation to extreme experimentalism, from solo to very large ensemble. But this is a live recording and not a studio take, so I really wonder how this cooperation has been settled. I'm persuading myself that someone must have cheated on them. Something like: “Would you come and play tonight for a solo set at the Vancouver Jazz Fest? Be sure no other sax players will be there the same night!” Whatever way it went, I must admit they're not the first two saxophonists coming into my mind for a duo.

M - Absolutely right, Paolo. All the more if you consider the fact that sax duos are relatively rare. There are some on FMP (one of my all-time favorites is Koch/Fuchs/Parker/Sclavis’s “Duets dithyrambisch”, for example, or Lacy/Parker’s “Chirps”) and, of course, Jarman/Braxton’s wonderful “Together Alone”. The idea seems to be born out of the moment, even in the aftermath Gustafsson sounds as if he was blindsided. He said about the concert: “No escape ... nothing to hide ... you just need to go out there and interact!” But let’s talk about the music now.

P - Martin, don't you think that the most prominent aspect of this album is the capacity of the two players to blend their tunes more than setting a dialogue as in a traditional duet? This really seems to be the core of their approach to improvisation, no role or function is given in advance. They chase each other towards high pitches dismantling the rhythmic section in the most avantgardish style á la Philip Glass, or swiftly turn to melodic and dramatic bluesy phrasings as you can see at the end of “Stones that only be”. The symbiosis resulting from their interaction is so complete that what you have back is a sort of doppelgänger musician trying to surprise himself about where his music is really going.

M - At the very beginning of the first track “Stones that rest heavily” they sound like two opera singers warming up before one seems to lose track sounding like a thirsty, dangerous animal which is put on a strange drug. Then, after two minutes, the track starts anew, which is structurally a very similar beginning as on Stetson’s “New History Warfare Vol.2: Judges”. Only here he plays it with Gustafsson, his ugly twin, who was hidden from the rest of the family. And that’s where the music goes: it really reminds me of sex (are we allowed to say this?), passionate and greedy, exuberant, but also very tender, as if lovers were exploring their bodies for the first time (including outbursts of joy). What do you think, Paolo?

P - Totally true, Martin! I really like the long and slow passage of sustained trembling notes in the low register around minute four. I must admit I'm enchanted moreover by Stetson's timbre. He has developed these kind of hoarse death throes where Gustafsson can lean on to climb towards high pitches. It's really like an animal courtship that brings us, around minute seven, to the fight. The cohesiveness is then disrupted by syncopated assaults of cutting notes. But exactly as two deer stuck together by antlers, once the acme is reached, they need to loose and that's why we have this far relaxed atmosphere opening "Stones that only be", like two friends remembering their reckless youth. Have you heard the double tapping of minute three and a half? They must be happy! I have now a question for you. I know you're an earnest "Gustafssonian", so, listening to the beginning of "Stones that need not", in my opinion again really "Stetsonian", how do you interpret this? I mean that there is something more standardized and recognizable in Stetson's sound that conform the presence of the heterogeneous and eclectic (that's for sure!) Mats Gustafsson. Or is the Swedish axe giving his young friend the privilege to throw down the gauntlet and choose his best weapon so that he can follow him to his territory?

M - It is a typical Stetson beginning, no doubt. Maybe the fact that the album is dedicated to Sweden’s influential outsider poet Gunnar Ekelöf helps us here. Ekelöf once said: “I have only studied, unsystematically, things which could have some importance for my work as a poet. For the work of a poet is vision and form, and I praise the particular God who has made me capable of translating even dull facts in thick tomes into vision”. I guess this is what Gustafsson also does, he is interested in the music of others and - with Stetson being one of the most outstanding players of the younger generation - he is fascinated by his structural austerity and adds his vision to it. Stetson is dominating the beginning of the track, however, Gustafsson tempts him constantly to leave his well-structured playing, he is luring him away to more open pastures until Stetson submits himself. The second half is the meeting for the cup final, the showdown. Both have met each other at eye level, they are firing their musical magazines at the audience until they are almost empty – one of my favorite moments on the album. So, after all, what is your impression of the album?

P - Is it an aural hallucination given by the fight of saxophones or at the very beginning of  “Stones that only have” the duo is for a brief moment a trio counting the far cry of a child in the audience? - and I want to send my admiration to his parents here for the musical education they’re providing. By the way, this is a great album, Martin, and I like this notion of the artist as someone so in love with his art that is not interested in prevailing on someone else “flexing his muscles”, he can just stay still and stare enraptured by the beauty of what is listening, choosing the right moment to speak. Gustafsson is certainly a total musician, a great improviser in any conceivable formation and an artist devoted to the development of music in general. Stetson is a great promise and worthily joins the first. Considering that in the production of the younger a conspicuous amount of composition is evident by now, and considering as well that this is a live recording, I’d really like to see this same couple in a studio production. The most important thing is that they will give us other unforgettable meetings as this one.

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