Ensemble X - Metaimprovisor (Red Toucan, 2012) ****½

Posted by Joe

It's not often that you get one of these on the Free Jazz blog! Real improvised music with people listening, no egos, no soloists, just like in the old days! My first statements might seem a little ridiculous, but they're not meant to be. I notice that today we seem to - luckily - be developing an improvised music scene made up of groups that have lead identities, and nothing wrong with that. Gustafsson, Brötzmann, Vandermark, Halvorson, Wooley, Laubrock etc, names that lead and could be called soloists if needs be. However, some forms of improvised music work on the idea of cooperative improvisation, ensemble work. Groups such as London Improvisers Orchestra and ICP are rare to see out on the road, probably due to logistics? Well, NFS Ensemble X is another of these large groups consisting of 19 musicians put together and led by Carl Ludwig Hübsch, a name (sorry to say) I'm not familiar with. You can read more about the circumstances for putting this ensemble together and a little background here and the full list of musicians.

If you bought or heard - back in 2011 - the Futon Quartet after reading Stef's reaction to the album, then this album may also speak to you. It is music which is very, very detailed, and extremely delicate in texture, in fact with so many musicians it's like wondering how so many elephants can tiptoe around without breaking anything! Each improvisation (4 in all) is a delicate canvas of sound and colour, not unlike a minimalist or abstract painting, maybe resembling such modern canvases as Pollock, Rothko or a Tobey. Splurges of sound, seemingly endless blurred blocks of sound colour blend together giving the pieces great depth.The pieces are titled X113, X8, X112 and X111 which also gives them a sense of abstract impressionism, leaving the listener to hear what they wish within these massive structures. There are no soloists sticking out of the music, giving an impression of a blanket of sound. The dynamics in each of the pieces can change unexpectedly, swelling up from time to time like a storm brooding which passes over you leaving a calm but mysterious unresolved mist of sound. The music's wild open landscapes conjure up strange images, full of half seen or imagined images.    

The key to this music, and what makes (or brakes) it is that 'Ensemble X' really listens to each other, which is essential to this type of music, and maybe something rather lacking in our present-day society? Each player must hear what the other is saying before making a contribution, absolutely sure what is needed, a truly egalitarian approach.

Highly recommended for all who like details in music, and for those who enjoy chamber ensembles, a rare thing in the present financial climate unfortunately.

*= Carl Ludwig Hübsch does of course feature on our blog elsewhere, unfortunately I hadn't heard any of his previous work. Of course now I'm very curious and will certainly be check up to see/hear what I've been missing.      

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Culture Of Un - Moonish (Bocian, 2012) ****

By Stef    

Reality is sometimes to be found in the cracks of what we perceive, in the fissures in walls, through holes in fences, through torn curtains, through broken shutters, yet even then there is hardly anything to grasp, to connect or frame. The picture is incomplete, evasive, unknownable but because of this quality, is it creates attention, it attracts, it forces you to look closer, to come closer, to look differently, to actively search for other means of coming to grips with what is already gone, what disappears before your eyes.

It is in this space that the music of David Brown on guitar and Chris Abrahams (The Necks) on piano comes to live. What they bring has a kind of natural feeling of familiarity:  you hear guitar and piano, you sense some pulse, some repetition even, but never long enough to comprehend it, to predict it, to anticipate it. This constant and soft-spoken renewal of simple sounds has an effect of fresh surprise.

Yet there is a story somehow, some unity that keeps it all together, some drama even, as in "The Saw Had A Job To Do That Summer" in which some electrical instrument breaks through the sound, after which the music falls like percussive shards into nothingness, and gets built up again, note by note. With the beautiful "Watery For Two Days", the album ends in repetitive yet changing flowing piano phrases, with muted guitar sounds offering cross-currents and other obstructions, sometimes moving along, often going against the grain.

Clever and beautiful music.


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James Falzone's Klang! - Brooklyn Lines -- Chicago Spaces (AllosDocuments, 2012) ****

By Paul Acquaro

There is an energy in Brooklyn. Pushed out of Manhattan by escalating rents and rampant suburbanization, artists and musicians are taking over industrial spaces and occupying neighborhoods. It's an old story by now (and one past its prime in some neighborhoods) but one that inspired Chicago based clarinetist James Falzone's latest album Brooklyn Lines -- Chicago Spaces.

In his release notes, Falzone explains "I became fascinated by the lines I was seeing all around in the pavement, ironworks, cracks in the walls, graffiti, you name it." Drawing from his week long residency in Brooklyn, Falzone then drew upon some of the Chicago based musicians that are no strangers to the readers of this blog, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Tim Daisy, to help bring to life this collection of compelling compositions and inspired improvisations. In his liner notes, John Corbet suggests the influences of clarinetist John Carter, Ornette Coleman, and Jimmy Giuffre on Falzone's approach to this set. Quite an inspiring line-up!

'Brooklyn Lines' kicks things off with a delicate and sunny melody on clarinet. Falzone is shadowed by Adasiewicz's vibraphone, playing a quirky counter melody. But the light hearted fare is simply a teaser, leading up to the rhythm section kicking in and quickly providing a driving accompaniment that introduces some wonderful drama to the atmosphere. Daisy's drums and Roebke's bass are driving, meticulous and moving. Throughout, Adasiewicz's vibraphone is lush and provocative. His playing gives the music a texture that fills in and shades behind the woodwind. As a group, they achieve a driving sound that is at the same time light and buoyant. 

'Ukrainian Village' begins with a frenetic melody, the vibes adding to the festiveness. The pacing is exhilarating and the song soon opens up to a very free section where Falzone's clarinet and some sort of electronics make for a high energy exchange. The contrast between the vibes and clarinet continues to mesmerize in the following 'Alone in the Brain', but here, the drums enter the conversation freely, accentuating off beats and accents in creative ways. Throughout the album, the melodies and counter melodies are imaginative and creative and the rhythm section ably supports and pushes the music forward. 

Falzone's music is seductively easy to enjoy. The more you listen, the more depth, crosscurrents and patterns you realize. It is quite easy to recommend this one highly.

Listen:

You can buy the album from instantjazz.com.  

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Pão - Pão (Shhpuma, 2012) ****½

By Philip Coombs

I really like the foreboding intro to this album, the latest release from the new Portuguese label Shhpuma. It straight away sets an ambiance and a suspense, a feeling that you are in for something really good. It's like there is something in the mud just ahead. You can't see it yet, but it can see you. It is waiting until you get too involved to turn around and run. It waits until it can make a clean strike. Cymbals crash like dead branches beneath your feet, the saxophone is blowing wind through the trees all around you. Where is it?

Track 2, 'Dyson Tree', picks up where track 1 'Gods wait do delight in you' leaves off, with a continuous drone being churned out by Tiago Sousa (keyboards, organ, harmonium and percussion) with a very restrained saxophone implying a melody in the background. Before long, however, your ear is drawn away from the tones and is forced to pay closer attention to the sax solo. Pedro Sousa (tenor saxophone) weaves a wonderfully slow, distraught display of subtlety and places it perfectly into the aural atmosphere constantly being set by Tiago Sousa and Travassos (tapes, amplified objects, circuit bending, voice). Because of this mood and tempo, the solo, thoughtfully, takes its own sweet time to fully develop but throughout its journey, it continues to change, search and explore multiple ideas until it finishes on fire. As track 2 was fading to its conclusion, I was already looking forward to the final and longest track on the recording.

Could what was hiding in the mud be something beautiful after all?

'It was all downhill after the swing', starts with Pedro Sousa displaying an orchestras worth of extended technique, chirps, and throaty effects before giving way to the electronics that were building momentum behind him all along. There are moments when the saxophone and the harmonium blend together so well that it becomes difficult to tell them apart. Around the 9 minute mark, the suspense starts to build again as percussion elements take a larger role and big powerful key changes in the tone wall signify a shift in control of the melodic elements of the track. There is a real sense of urgency at play here but no rush, a very important difference indeed. It is an unknown destination with no maps and no time limit but just the feeling that they absolutely have to get there.

Eventually, whatever was in the mud, turns around and heads back very pleased with itself.

Considering that this is only the second release from Shhpuma, they are already proving to have a great set of collective ears which will hopefully translate into longevity and many continued intriguing releases.

You can buy the album from instantjazz.com. 

And to get an idea of their sound, watch them create it here.




You can buy the album from instantjazz.com. 


© stef

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Bark! - Fume of Sighs (Psi Recordings, 2012) ****

By Philip Coombs

Very rarely will I stop an album before it finishes just to start it again. Two songs into the latest Bark! recording, Fume of Sighs, I realized that I was becoming very overwhelmed with what I was hearing. I removed my earbuds and took a moment to process what was happening. It was too much too fast. There we're guitar scrapes, rhythmic clatters and samples of unknown origin all convulsing my ears. I can't help myself from referring to the band's name here. It sounded like three dogs from three different breeds in the same kennel barking at each other, but in perfect syncopation. 

I started the album again, knowing more of what to expect which bought me some more time for analysis and eventually words to choose when writing about what I was ingesting.

The facts of the matter are; Rex Casswell on electric guitar, Phillip Marks on drums, and Paul Obermayer triggering the samples, everything else is a big grey area. A grey area as in there are parts where all of the instruments sound as one, and times where they are so far apart you would swear they were being conducted in order to stay together. Time and  rhythm are thrown out the window as they quickly establish their own way to talk to each other. It works due to its surprise and persistence. I will coin it projectile rhythming. (Sorry spell checker.)

On songs like 'Zodiac',  the sampler takes on less of an electronic buzz and crispness and transforms into more of a percussive element which blurs the lines even more.

'Trampoline' slows things down a little and even gives room for some duo interaction as one at a time, one musician drops out allowing the other two a moment to explore. It was this track in particular that really shone a light on the sampler and just how effective it can be when coloring a track. Obermayer performs like a painter would looking for unused areas of canvas to use. It could be a sample panned hard left or hard right or directly after a downbeat or just before a guitar interjection. Just an array of sounds bouncing around in your head as you listen. Either way he consistently hits them like an archer.

'Morse Eyes', gives us a taste of that these guys can do when they play around with melody. Marks once again displaying his ability to stop playing on a dime and pick up again just as quickly.

Unfortunately there has to be a downfall and for me it is my attention span. As great and as fresh as the beginning of the album was for me, I did find myself not as engaged as the album was coming to its conclusion. Full marks however for giving me something to get excited about and forcing me to look at rhythm in a new way.

Can be ordered directly from the label.

© stef

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Brötzmann Week Epilogue

By Martin Schray

In addition to the reviews during the past week, I would like to give mention to a wonderful set of reissues on the Austrian Cien Fuegos label. Brötzmann told me that he has never worked with such a reliable label since Jost Gebers has given up FMP. Cienfuegos has released legendary and long out-of-print Brötzmann albums like “Balls”, “Tschüss” and the 7-inch “Einheitsfrontlied” (all of them with Van Howe/Bennink), “Schwarzwaldfahrt” and “Ein halber Hund kann nicht pinkeln” (with Bennink) and “The Nearer the Bone, the Sweeter the Meat” (with Harry Miller and Louis Moholo). Some might say that it is a pity that they are only released as limited vinyl versions but Brötzmann himself is very pleased with  it and he has promised that there are more to come.

At the age of 71 Peter Brötzmann, who is a reserved, reflective and friendly man, usually releases more than ten albums every year. Except the reviewed albums there is another project soon to be released, a duo album with Jason Adasiewicz (vib) on Eremite and there is a five-CD-box in preparation about the 2011 Wels festival he curated. Recently he told me that he is doing fine and that he was touring South America with Steve Noble and John Edwards, where lots of people came to his shows obviously having a lot of catching up to do. Give the people what they need, Mr Brötzmann!

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Brötzmann/Satoh/Moriyama - Yatagarasu (Not Two, 2012) ****½

By Tom Burris

Peter Brötzmann is one of those musicians who people tend to discuss whenever the conversation turns to whether or not free jazz’s signature of unbridled passionate intensity is natural or forced.  (“C’mon, nobody feels anything that intensely for 90 minutes straight!”)  Personally, I think Brötzmann negates the question completely.  The man is a force of nature.  Yeah, his reputation says he’s a screamer, Europe’s Ayler, whatever – but this is simply focusing on his patented knockout punch.  Admittedly, he can deliver that punch for 20 minutes straight but his approach is not singular by any means, as this disc (and his entire discography) proves.  Yatagarasu is his trio with Takeo Moriyama on drums & Masahiko Satoh on piano; and this disc was recorded in front of a very lucky audience in Poland last year.

The first track, “Yatagarasu,” (named for a Japanese Crow God) opens with a bang.  Long vibrato melodic fragments bellow out of Brotzmann’s sax, supported freely by Moriyama while Satoh stabs wild chords on the piano.  (Imagine Rashied Ali and Alice Coltrane playing with Ayler.)  The trio reaches a feverish intensity shortly after the seven minute mark that doesn’t really pull back for three minutes, which – not surprisingly – turns out to be a mere warm-up for this band. This track also features a drum solo by Moriyama about 17 minutes in, before Brötzmann appears for some slow(er) and spacious duo action. The track builds to another amazing crescendo before crashing to a screeching halt.

Satoh and Brötzmann begin “Icy Spears” by playing in the upper registers of their respective instruments. Satoh plays from the post-Cecil school, utilizing plenty of staccato punch and space.  In the second section of this track, Brotzmann works up a smoky Ben Webster impression while Satoh finds a softer way of dicing up the keys and Moriyama works the brushes; but by the 12:30 mark they’re reaching another peak of fiery intensity.  Then Satoh gets a spot to himself, sounding not unlike Matthew Shipp in the way that his playing is purposeful and precise but still open to any and all possibilities. Brötzmann enters playing long, pretty notes, prompting Satoh to bang out quick, sharp, discordant runs in the upper register of the piano. Naturally, Brötzmann's response is to squeal harder and higher, throwing Satoh to the floor to bang on the lower keys.

“Autumn Drizzle” opens with Satoh playing what sounds like “Cecil Chopsticks” and then it gets solid. Moriyama jumps in and matches the piano groove with a loony cumbia beat before both begin to approximate the rhythm more freely. By the time Brötzmann arrives it’s turned into a rent party gone to hell with people heaving furniture out of windows, breaking lamps, and shooting the T.V.

A (figurative) foghorn blows a one-note drone at the beginning of “Frozen Whistle” and the drone stays intact throughout via the left hand of Masahiko Satoh. Satoh’s right hand holds down the upper register, leaving the middle to Brötzmann's tarogato and its vaguely Middle Eastern melody. It’s an enigmatic and beautiful short meditative piece, a knockout punch every bit as potent as the one Brötzmann's reputation rests on.


You can buy the album from instantjazz.com. 

Artists Website:
http://www.peterbroetzmann.com/

© stef

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Brötzmann/Satoh/Moriyama - Yatagarasu (Not Two, 2012) ****

By Martin Schray

Improvised music in Europe has developed out of American free jazz, without the first musicians of that genre (and Peter Brötzmann is one of them) being simple epigones. Even his early works like his trio with Fred Van Hove (piano) and Han Bennink (drums) were bold and independent, yet unfinished sketches of a new music, a typical standing-on-the-shoulders-of-giants thing. This is why some improvisers, who claim the outstanding and ultimate originality of their music being only indebted to moment and interaction, are only partly right. Non-idiomatic improvisation is not reduced if you consider individual and genre-related history as parts of what is happening in this music. If Sigmund Freud was right and men do everything deliberately, then a reflection with consciously or unconsciously and inevitably used knowledge of musical history helps to create and understand this great, dazzling and wonderful network of contemporary free jazz.

Peter Brötzmann has always known that. In “Soldier of the Road”, a documentary about him, he says that he considers himself a “middle European guy” with all the history (and the clichés – even the negative ones) it brings with it. He knows that he is influenced by Sidney Bechet and Albert Ayler and Ornette Coleman (in other words: the blues), but also by German brass bands and political folk songs (as you can see in his version of “Einheitsfrontlied” with Van Howe and Bennink).

In all the reviews of this week you can see that there is a certain linearity and consistency in Brötzmann’s approach. On “Yatagarasu” he teams up with Masahiko Satoh (piano) and Takeo Moriyama (drums) which refers to his trio with Van Howe and Bennink (see above) and their seminal albums “Balls” (1970) and “Tschüss” (1975). Although Brötzmann  has also released similar trios with Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink (“3 Points and a Mountain”), Alex von Schlippenbach and Sven-Ake Johannson (“Up and Down the Lion”) and Marilyn Crispell and Hamid Drake (“Hyperion”) over the years, this line-up is relatively rare in his work.

“Yatagarasu” is an almost classical album, an iconoclastic outbreak,  just because Satoh’s and Moriyama’s ways of playing differ completely from those of the musicians mentioned above although both of them are Japanese free jazz veterans of Brötzmann’s generation as well. Especially Satoh draws on the unlimited resources of jazz history in a way – let’s say – Matthew Shipp does it as well. While Fred Van Howe is mainly a sound pioneer exploring the limits of the piano and Marilyn Crispell has a rather romantic approach somehow, Satoh’s playing is based on his education as a classical composer and on swing and modern jazz. Moriyama, in contrast, is a very skilled listener, trying to provide maximum back up for his comrades. His style differs from Bennink, who has always tried to include humorous and clownesque aspects, and Drake, who is deeply rooted in African-American jazz, in a way that he is reserved but absolutely determined and focused. In the end the trio somehow reminds me of Cecil Taylor’s band on his early release “Nefertiti, the Beautiful One has come”.

The album consists of two larger pieces (“Yatagarasu” – a three-legged crow representing the sun in Asian mythology – and “Icy Spears”) and two shorter pieces (“Autumn Drizzle” and “Frozen Whistle”), which are the actual highlights of the CD, especially “Frozen Whistle”, which is just a sketch, is of the utmost beauty. “YAT” is superb, conservative (in a positive way) free jazz.

You can watch a short but significant clip from last year’s Wels festival here:





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Peter Brötzmann & Jörg Fischer - In Wiesbaden (NotTwo, 2011) *****

By Alfie Cooke

Peter Brötzmann - alto and tenor sax, clarinet, taragato
Jörg Fischer - drums

Another Brötzmann, another Brötzmann sax-drums duo.  Another fierce explosion of sound from the Machine Gun.  But if there was ever a perfect vehicle for the muscle- lungs that is Peter Brötzmann, it has to be the drums-sax duo.  All else is dispensed with, and the sound and the fury that listeners have come to expect comes bursting through.  So forceful is it that the opening track, 'Productive Cough', which doesn't let up until moments from the end, doesn't seem like a nigh-on nine-minute attack.  But just as you expect the mood to continue, everything changes...

This is one of the key qualities in Peter Brötzmann that many people miss.  Not only is he the lungs and the guts and the gravy of full-throttle avant garde, he is also one of the most fragile and delicate performers on the clarinet since Jimmy Giuffre.  'The Steady Hand As Planned' begins with a tumbling stone falling, a rasp, drawn out and searching into eternity before the clear tones suggest something of a melody.  All of a sudden, you expect George Lewis to come in playing 'Winin' Boy Blues'.  All the while, percussionist Jörg Fischer skitters away in the background.  Gradually, they build together, the drums building their way to the front and Brötzmann leaning ever closer to an Ayleresque wail.   Before you know it, Fischer is thundering away at the toms like an off-kilter Sonny Greer against Brötzmann's Berlin air haft. And then it all goes quiet... Have they picked up their instruments and moved away from the microphones?  And gradually they fade into the sunset.

There are some Brötzmann recordings that I visit infrequently - for some reason 'Alarm' and 'Signs' have never grabbed me - but I know that this will never be one of those that filters its way into the ‘file-in-the-loft' pile.  This is gripping music, the sound that you want to pick up to find where it will be heading next.  So how does it compare to the duets with Han Bennink and Paal Nilssen-Love?  It can't be said.  Different musicians, different times, different musics... All you need to think is, does the Brötzmann/Fischer duo work?  And the answer has to be yes.

You can buy the album from instantjazz.com.





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Peter Brötzmann & Improvising Ensemble of Qianxingzhe: China Live 2011 (Jazzhuis, 2012) ***

By Martin Schray 

The Improvising Ensemble of Qianxingzhe is Xu Fengxia (voice, guzheng, saxian), Li Tieqiao (sax, Scandinavia spring flute) and Kristian Mondrup Nielsen (dr). The concert (and the small tour) was sponsored by the German Goethe Institute in order to bring musicians of different cultures together to break down national and ethnic borders – a noble intention and an interesting approach because it crosses global frontiers giving the musicians the possibility to look for unknown pastures, exploring what could be anew out there “to juxtapose the whole wide world with itself”, as Steve Day said. Bringing together such musicians is not an odd idea of homogeneity, it is actually about music outside the known framework so that, for example, combining Xu’s guzheng, which is an important voice in Chinese folk music with Brötzmann’s sax, maybe the most distinctive force in Western free jazz, so that they can build something which has not been heard before.

On this album Brötzmann does not appear on all tracks. He plays an alto solo on “Walking in Wu Men”, two tracks with the complete band – who join him on “Bejing Legend” and “Feel as if we were visiting your Country of Birth”, a sax duo with Li (“Art District 798”) and one with Xu (“Moat) where he plays the tarogato.

Sometimes the culture clash has its moments, for example in Brötzmann’s duets with Xu and Li, but sometimes it is – frankly speaking - rather lame. The reasons for it are mainly Kristian Mondrup Nielsen, whose drumming is often listless and dull (especially if you compare it to Paal Nilsson-Love’s powerful precision) and the fact that the interaction between the players does not always work. Last but not least Xu’s voice takes some getting used to. The three tracks without Brötzmann are rather mediocre as well, listening to the other tracks shows what a difference Brötzmann’s sound can make to any group.

But somehow it is relieving that not every combination of musicians Peter Brötzmann is a part of is a true gem, although it is an interesting experiment.

“China Live 2011” is available as a CD plus DVD set. The DVD shows the whole concert including a bonus track by Xu Fengxia. It is fun to watch because of the strange location for this kind of music (it looks like a discotheque). Unfortunately, the CD/DVD set is relatively expensive. For Brötzmann aficionados it might be a must, for listeners with a smaller budget the other albums being reviewed this week may be more attractive.

© stef

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