Sten Sandell & Paal Nilssen-Love – Jacana (Rune Grammofon, 2014) ***½

By Julian Eidenberger

Combining piano and drums in a duo setting is hardly a daring proposition, as the two instruments go together quite well. On the one hand, they seem to complement each other almost perfectly, with the piano’s potential for near-orchestral fullness counter-balancing the drums’ “skeletal” properties. On the other hand, there’s also some overlap between them, due to the fact that both generate sounds percussively. It’s a constellation that can yield great results when appropriately exploited, making, in such cases, for a tightly knit yet wide-ranging sonic union. That being established, it’s all the more surprising that the duo of Swedish pianist Sten Sandell and Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love doesn’t quite succeed in producing that kind of instrumental union. Indeed, considering the duo’s unimpeachable musical pedigree, which includes incendiary outfits such as The Thing, Scorch Trio and Lean Left in Nilssen-Love’s case, and a history of performing works by New Music luminaries like Xenakis and Cage in Sandell’s, you’d expect nothing but a flawless success of them.

To be clear: Jacana is by no means a bad record. Its three improvised tracks, which were recorded live at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in 2013, offer a fair share of good and even great moments. Sandell, in particular, provides some very fine pianistic moments, from seamlessly woven tapestries of notes to thundering chords that could shake the gates of heaven, and further on to the alien abstractions of extended technique (although that last element isn’t as prominent here as might be expected of a frequent performer of New Music). Moreover, he engages in some very deep and low vocalizing on the second track Kauri, which, in combination with his sinister chords and runs on the piano, resembles Varèse’s Nocturnal, and perhaps some Schönbergian ballads. But occasionally – and this is where we get to the downsides – the music fails to attract the listener’s attention, running on for minutes without producing anything substantial. Nilssen-Love’s contributions here might be part of the problem; he’s a drummer I hold in very high regard, but here, he’s often content to inhabit the supporting role, rarely stepping up with attention-grabbing ideas of his own. Besides, he doesn’t always respond in the ideal way to Sandell’s pianistic propositions, sometimes employing drum-kit-devouring rolls where a sparser, more disjointed approach might’ve been a more appropriate answer.

But then again, this is far from bad, and if this might appear to be a bit of a letdown, it’s only because of the very high standards these excellent musicians have set for themselves on previous records.


Listen:

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'A' Trio - Live In Nickelsdorf (Roaratorio, 2013) ****

By Stef

The "A" Trio are Mazen Kerbaj on trumpet, Sharif Sehnaoui on acoustic guitar, and Raed Yassin on doublebass, three musicians well known from the Lebanese Al Maslakh label, now featuring on this limited edition LP from Roaratorio. What the trio does is amazing. They create a sonic universe well beyond the known possibilities of their instruments, and nobody (nobody!) could guess which instruments are being played if I had not already disclosed it. It is noise, it is minimal yet dense at the same time, played with a sense of urgency that is familiar to rock music, but then without the bluntness and the fixed rhythm. It sounds like sirens urging you on, to move to act to do something while at the same time stopping you in your tracks because the music (?) is spell-binding and paralysing too, taking the power out of your muscles, weakening your legs.

It is fearful. Listen to the howls of the trumpet after thirteen minutes, or to the uncanny layers of screeching sounds that end the ominous first side. The second track, on side two, start with a strange rhythmic pattern of circling bowed bass and repetitive trumpet phrases that sound like a sax, deepening the intensity of the music, moving the sounds forward in an almost unavoidable way, beyond choice. It is terrifying with intensity, raw, direct and compelling, and the finale is absolutely hypnotic in its relentless violent drive.

This is an excellent album with music that is not easy, but listeners with open ears and strong hearts will appreciate its musical quality and emotional power.


Available from Instantjazz.

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Akira Sakata - Arashi (Trost, 2014) *****

By Stefan Wood

"Arashi" is a relentlessly furious album.  It is also great music.  Akira Sakata's latest effort, grouped here with Joan Berthling (bass) and Paul-Nilssen Love (drums), the album's four tracks pummel and goad the ears with growling horns and voices, a torrent of drums, and pulsating bass.  Sakata is in top form here, featuring some of his finest playing in years.  Neither acerbic nor sweet, he deftly blows through notes with explosive clarity, not slurred, launching into furious clusters of sonic waves of sound that recalls the new wave of sound years of the 60s and 70s.

In this collaboration with Berthling and Love, "Arashi" comes across as a defining moment in Sakata's career, one of technical brilliance and creative assurance. The title track is a throw down by Arashi, throwing out a tidal wave after tidal wave of notes, while Berthing and Love furiously supply a torrent of bass and percussion.  "Ondo No Huna-Uta," is a terrific free vocal piece, Berthling and Love practically exploding in the background, Sakata improvising with gutteral vocals that stretch and bend over the drums, cackling maniacally.  "Dora" starts off fast and only gets faster, Sakata's sax literally dancing on top of Love's pounding and rolling percussion, before giving way to Love, in a frantic yet satisfying conclusion. "Fukushima No Ima" concludes the album with a somber clarinet by Sakata, assisted by Berthling, as the two create a meditative and thoughtful duet, reflecting perhaps on the nuclear disaster, then Love comes in to stir the pot, Sakata then vocalizing, before they drift off to an ethereal conclusion, with the brushing of cymbals and bells.  For those who have been looking for a solid free jazz effort, "Arashi" delivers the goods.  Sakata, Berthling and Love play hard and furious, but assured, and the interplay between the three is at a high level.  It's like a free jazz throwdown answer to Elvin Jones' classic "Putting It Together."  It gets my highest recommendation.

Arashi was reviewed during an artist deep dive feature by Martin Schray in August as well.


Available from Instantjazz.

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How many musicians does it take to create silence?

By Stef

Related to the whole free jazz and free improv movement, the family's quiet younger electroacoustic sibling is growing and expanding, quietly, without much fuss, yet gradually, and growing more beautiful by the day. His character is subdued, introspective, and calm ... yet incredibly intense and precise. Accuracy and the appreciation of the value of a single tone, with the full color of variant timbres coming to life and evolving in slow sonic kaleidoscopes, the instruments don't seem to matter, or rather, they present us with something new, with something we never knew resided somewhere deep in the brass or the wood or the strings.

AMM - Place Sub. V. (Matchless, 2014) ****

The masters and founders of the genre are AMM, now limited to John Tilbury on piano and Eddie Prévost on percussion. On "Place Sub  V", they push their musical concept even further, stroking, caressing cymbals and strings and wood, making sounds resonate and little muted plucks on strings and rattles with chains pierce through the ominous silence. There seems to be no need to express anything, no need to demonstrate anything, apart from the beauty of the isolated sonorities reverberating in the open space, creating space for other little sounds to emerge, to echo, to exist. Tilbury and Prévost know each other so well, and they listen so well to each other's sounds, giving each other space and interacting at the same time, that this instant joint composition is another example of the discipline it requires to generate this artistic purity. A lot goes on here, and the restraint and inventiveness create a marvelous tension that is kept throughout the one hour, one minute and one second long piece.

Beautiful!


Jürg Frey & Radu Malfatti - ii  (Erstwhile, 2014) ***½

Clarinettist Jürg Frey and trombonist Radu Malfatti offer us an incredible treat in two discs of more than one hour each. The first disc consists solely of acoustic clarinet and trombone, yet anyone listening to the album without knowing this, will have a hard time telling which instruments offer us this long, almost monotonous piece of long, endlessly stretched tones, which shift in color, in interaction and layering. The result is quite exceptional, mesmerising, soothing and intense at the same time. And once in a while you hear the physical aspect of the playing, like a tong-slap on the clarinet, to emphasise the acoustic side of the sound. The second CD goes on in the same spirit of endless tones, built around silence, but now one that is intensified by ambient sounds of birds singing, or voices in the background, and the overall tonality is even less physical, more a shimmering of sound, deeper and even more fragile.


Andrew Lafkas - 1+1 = Year Zero (Watermoon, 2014) ****

Bassist Andrew Lafkas offers us a one hour composition called "1+1 = Year Zero", performed by a nonet consisting of Jason Brogan on electric guitar, Adam Diller on bass clarinet, Tucker Dulin on trombone, Sean Meehan on percussion, Ron Stabinsky on piano, Leif Sundstrom on percussion, Karen Waltuch on viola, Barry Weisblat on radio, and Andrew Lafkas himself on bass. 

The composition and the performance are amazing. A basic low and barely audible sound is almost kept throughout, once in a rare while interrupted by a piano key, a minute skronk from the electric guitar, or another instrument piercing through the nebulous foundation, that at times gathers more momentum, with horns and strings increasing the volume, adding drama, yet without too much alteration of the core tone, making the composition move like a slow tonal river, with slow waves of sound, or even better surface ripples, that are clearly distinct but yet an integral part of the movement that you hear. 

Towards the end, the imminent flow increases into a massive groundswell, only to disappear again as it arose. A powerful piece, one that I've listened to a lot over the past months, and even if it may appear monotonous at a first listen, a lot is actually taking place. 


Skogen - Despairs Had Governed Me Too Long (Another Timbre, 2014) ****½

The absolute masters of quiet intensity are Skogen, a band whose "Ist Gefallen In Den Schnee" figured on my best albums list of 2012. The leader of this tentet is pianist and clarinetist Magnus Granberg, who created the music on this album based on 'harmonic and rhythmic material from a song by the seventeenth century English composer John Dowland'. I am not familiar with the original, so it's hard to compare, and I can assume that anybody knowing the original music, will also find it hard to compare. 

The band is Granberg on piano and clarinet, Angharad Davies and Anna Lindal on violin, Leo Svensson Sander on cello, John Eriksson on marimba and vibraphone, Ko Ishikawa on sho, Toshimura Nakamura on no-input mixing board, Erik Carlsson on percussion, Peter Wästberg on contact microphones and objects, and Henrik Olsson on bowls and glasses. 

It is hard to believe that a tentet can play such sparse and quiet sounds, that vibrate around the vast expanse of silence, shifting slowly and gradually with instruments coming out of the background for a few notes, a few percussive touches, then recede back for a few other instruments to present their timbral acrobatics, and even if the whole composition is built around a long stretched tone, the piece oscillates and pulsates in an organic, almost life-like way. 

Eventless Plot - Structures (Creative Sources, 2014) ***½

Eventless Plot is a trio consisting of Vasilis Liolios on inside piano, e-bow piano, objects, psaltiri, bells, singing bowls and semi-modular analog synth, Yiannis Tsirikoglou on objects, guitar, electronics, Max/MSP, and Aris Giatas on piano, psaltiri, objects and bells. They have two guests on the album : Chris Cundy on bass clarinet on the first track, and Louis Portal on percussion on the third. 

In contrast to the trio's usual albums, the sound is more restraint, quiet even, less psychedelic, but fully in the electroacoustic mode, with sparse sounds, quietly balanced and paced. 

On the first, far too short track, Cundy's clarinet hovers over the other sounds, suspended above the quiet soundscape, with deeptoned, flexing tones offering a kind of moaning quality to the music, alternated with more agitated moments, yet still hovering. The second track is played just by the trio, and is built around a high-pitched electronic sound, against which bells and bowls and other objects resonate, offering a more meditative mindset in the first half, yet then intensity increases, as does the sonic density, with guitar and piano creating a haunting repetitive framework. The third track starts more intimately, because it lacks the spacious resonance of the other two pieces, and little objects and percussion interact nicely and gently, gradually shape-shifting into silence and then into an electronic drone which keeps gaining momentum, but ever so slowly. 

Microtub - Star System (Sofa, 2014) ****

Microtub is an unprecedented tuba trio, with Robin Hayward on microtonal F-tuba, Kristoffer Lo on microtonal C-tuba and Martin Taxt on microtonal C-Tuba. Even if fully acoustic, the music has an incredible resonance, and the three instruments weave long, almost endless tones over and through each other, creating a deep sonic feeling of substance while keeping the space very open. 

It is no surprise that the Pythagorean concept of the "music of the spheres" come to mind, the deep harmony of sound that might emanates from the movement of the planets and stars, and that is imperceptible to the human ear (until now!). After listening to their debut album some years ago, you could wonder whether the core concept could still be open for creative renewal, and the trio does it here in spades, with more gravitas, more solidity, more depth, more expansiveness, and beautiful contrasts among the three instruments. 

So how many musicians does it take to create silence? 

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Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano - Low Cost Space Flights (Feedtube Records, 2014) ****

By Paul Acquaro

Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano's Low Cost Space Flights is a tough recording that has no fear of a high pitched squawk or a tumble of the drums.  I wonder, as I sit here enrapt with the music pouring out of the speakers, what drives discerning listeners to seek out such difficult music?

Maybe one reason is that the music is from such an honest and pure place that the vitality of it makes such an uncompromising blast of energy so fascinating. From the primal to the sublime, there is so much that reflects the hard to articulate feelings of our everyday existence that it takes music like this to help us say it.

Perhaps too it's that the New England based duo of saxophonist Flaherty and drummer Corsano have a long creative history and their ease and effortless rapport is evident.  Plus, Corsano is a master of creating a pulse that is both dense and supportive and light and responsive. It's a pleasure to hear him create such a big sound with Flaherty.

And there is also the sound. Flaherty seamlessly vacillates between high pitched overtones, gutsy squalls and rich melodic lines. The 17 minutes of 'The Dog Paintings of George W. Bush' - from the title to the tone - captures anguish, terror, defeat as well as beauty and perseverance. The next track, 'Oranga Tang', is probably just a splice of the session that produced the first piece. Beginning as a solo run for Flaherty, by the end the sax has become a firehose drenching the listener with music. Each track that follows is a series of juxtapositions of tone, tempo and turn taking. The album closes on a high note - literally. The squeak that 'Drunk-Faced Sun' begins with ends up a melee with the drums by the end.

While I thoroughly enjoyed this low cost space flight and being flung through that often vast empty space of my head, I acknowledge that I have not really answered my original question. However, here is one I can: "Is this music everyone would enjoy?" Nope. But chances are if you're reading this blog, it just may be for you.

Limited edition LP and digital download.

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Horse Orchestra – Living the Dream (Barefoot Records, 2014) ***½

By Troy Dostert

Very much in the spirit of Available Jelly or Mostly Other People Do the Killing, the seven-piece Horse Orchestra brings an irreverent approach to its melding of disparate styles within the jazz tradition.  The musicians hail from places like Iceland and Sweden, although their home base is in Copenhagen.  While they are not quite as self-consciously disruptive of jazz orthodoxy as MOPDTK, you can definitely hear these guys’ willingness not to take themselves too seriously, as well as their determination to make sure everyone’s having a great deal of fun, most importantly.

Recorded before a very enthusiastic live audience, these mostly short pieces (only a couple last longer than six minutes) provide some appealing grooves, often with a New Orleans-style sensibility.  Although the group has a bass player (Nicolai Kaas Claesson), the rhythm section relies more heavily on a tuba for the low end (capably played by Kristian Tangvik)—all the better, really, for keeping the New Orleans vibe going.  The second track, “Doctor Jazz,” is a good example, where the guys play a Dixieland-ish up-tempo number essentially straight, with a particularly effective double-time section toward the end that brings the house down.  Other tracks offer complex post-bop themes, often with precise, disciplined ensemble playing that is quite impressive.  Although the band does integrate more abstract, “free” improvisation within its music, the freer aspects of the songs are usually limited to a few interludes here and there within pieces that are otherwise really tightly structured, and the group is at its best when it’s dedicated to keeping the groove going.  On those occasions when the band tries more deliberately to inject its postmodern whimsy into the music, it sometimes comes off not as liberating, but as meddlesome.  This is apparent on the record’s fifth cut, “Erbarm Dich Mein, O Herre Gott,” which is actually a rather beautiful rendition of a J.S. Bach piece (!), until the group’s drummer, Rune Lohse, starts cluttering things up with assorted bangings on the drum kit.  This kind of thing can be effective in some contexts, but here it just seemed to get in the way.  (To be fair, the same has been said of veteran groups like MOPDTK, as at times their iconoclastic subversions can detract from, rather than enhance, the power of the music.) 

The solos on the record are also somewhat uneven.   While tenor saxophonist Ingimar Andersen has an intense, slash-and-burn segment on “Voice Audition,” the record’s seventh track, his solo on the record’s ballad “3” was less inspiring, as he seemed much more tentative and unfocused when dealing with a cooled-off tempo.  And although pianist Jeppe Zeeberg is quite strong throughout most of the tracks, his solo on the breakneck-speed “Nackte Frau Mit Brille” seemed never to fully get going.

Although a bit more seasoning will take the members of the Horse Orchestra to the next level, one can’t fault them for the energy and zeal they bring to their music, and this is an enjoyable and stimulating recording overall. 

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Frank Lowe Quartet – Out Loud (Triple Point Records, 2014) *****

By Paul Acquaro and Martin Schray

Before we start with the review let’s bow humbly before Joe Lizzi and Ben Young, the men behind Triple Point Records, a small label which has released only three albums so far. But these albums are Cecil Taylor’s/Tony Oxley’s double LP Ailanthus/Altissima (Taylor’s last release) and New York Art Quartet’s Call it Art, a five LP box set, for which the two were rightfully Grammy nominated – it is one of the most beautiful and simply greatest releases in the last two years as to music, design and liner notes (have a look here.

Their latest effort is Frank Lowe Quartet’s Outloud and sometimes packaging says a lot about an album. In times where so much is reduced to a click on some data, it’s a pleasure holding some cardboard, vinyl and glossy paper. One of the striking things is the bold design with crisp lettering and a striking orange, white and black color palette. The design carries through the 38-page booklet that accompanies the double album release. The booklet is packed with historical, biographical, and technical essays, along with wonderful black-and-white photography and scrapbook entries of concert posters and tickets stubs. There is also an online access code to rare video footage of the band in action.

Through the essays, a sense of who Lowe was (he passed away in 2003) is captured in passages like:

“Working at the Satellite record shop was the first of many record store jobs that Lowe would hold throughout his life. He was a music lover and inveterate record hound, and working in record shops give him access to more music that he could afford to own. Perhaps more importantly, it also provides an income when just play music could not pay the bills.”

And of the fabled New York loft scene of the 70s:

“No one made much money, sometimes just a few dollars for a night’s work, but there was a great hope that the money would eventually come if the music was strong and developed enough. Frank Lowe was at home in this nonstop setting. He threw himself into it wholeheartedly.”

These passages, among many others, help paint a picture of what music meant to Lowe and the context for the music being made. First of all, this double LP is a release from tapes made at Sam and Beatrice Rivers’ East Village loft and it is a gem rescued from the unforgiving entropy of time. Like much of the music from the Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions compilation from a around the same time and recorded at the same loft, the music here captures the zeitgeist and presents Frank Lowe as one of the most interesting musicians of that scene.

Out Loud’s concert dates were recorded after Black Beings (on ESP-disk) and before Lowe's seminal album Fresh (on Arista). The group that Lowe (saxophones, flute, voice, percussion, balafon, whistles, harmonica, and miscellaneous small instruments) had assembled for the Out Loud recording dates included William Parker on bass, Steve Reid on drums, Joseph Bowie primarily on trombone and also featured a guest appearance by trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah. More raw and less programmatic than Fresh (which also had a slightly altered line up), the group plays with exuberance and joy throughout the four sides. Percussion, slide whistles, vocalizations and chants also capture the spirit of the times.

Lowe’s compositions on this album are influenced by Sun Ra’s percussive style (like drummer Steve Reid he was a member of the Arkestra) and integrated the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s African elements (he worked with Joseph Jarman on Black Beings and with Lester Bowie on Fresh) which he combines with his aggressive and fiery blues style. The most outstanding moments on this album are those when these structures crash into young William Parker’s bass ostinatos, relentlessly pushing the reeds, for example in “Untitled 2”, a fierce, angry social comment with Lowe even screaming and shouting; or in “Untitled 3”, where Lowe is challenged by Reid and Parker hunting him down a rollercoaster of musical emotions – blues cries that remind of Ayler, balladesque breathers, hardbop bass lines and ultra-fast drumming. When Ahmed Abdullah joins in, the rhythm section plays the same game with him.

And last but not least there is Joseph Bowie, then in his early twenties (in general it is amazing how young these musicians were). He accompanies Lowe like a loyal Sancho Pansa but he also fights him and the others in “Vivid Description” and especially in “Whew”, in which his trombone gives Lowe the crucial hints where the music should go.

Outloud  is on par with Albert Ayler's Holy Ghost: Rare And Unissued Recordings (1962-70), Bill Dixon’s Odyssey, William Parker’s Centering: Unreleased Early Recordings 1976-1987 and Joe McPhee’s Nation Time: The Complete Recordings (1969-70).

The album is available as a deluxe double vinyl edition, it is limited to 550 hand-numbered copies. It is expensive but it is worth every cent.

You can buy it from the label where you can also find a sound snippet.

Have a look at the photos and the booklet here.

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The Cellar and Point - Ambit (Cuneiform Records, 2014) ***½

By Chris Haines

OK, so this isn’t Jazz and it certainly isn’t a type of free music.  As part of Cuneiform Records latest set of releases, The Cellar and Point conjure up the sounds of avant-rock and chamber-rock style groups with similarities to bands such as Miriodor and Univers Zero.

Carefully composed pieces containing meticulously arranged musical lines which are rooted in the overall structure of the pieces weave an ornate and, at times, complex texture that is very colourful in sound with the resources of the septet being maximised to this full potential.  Irregular patterns and atonal melodies create interest but there is also a very accessible feel to this album as well.  The piece Arc being a good example of the latter, sounding like a slightly more beefy version of Penguin Cafe Orchestra, whilst Tabletop (a) with it’s heavy guitar, rock drumming and syncopated lines could be mistaken for a piece by the Italian progressive band Yugen.

Whilst it’s clear that the band exhibits a broad range of influences across the genres of avant-garde and experimental music it is interesting to note that the two cover versions on the album both come from the Classical Modernist movement.  Fünf Canons i, op.16 is a rather sombre and dirge-like instrumental re-working of Anton Webern’s composition, whilst György Ligeti’s piano piece Étude XV is treated to a much more sympathetic arrangement.

The Cellar and Point are: Joe Bergen (vibraphone), Christopher Otto (violin), Kevin McFarland (cello), Terrence McManus (electric guitar), Christopher Botta (acoustic guitar & banjo), Rufus Philpot (electric bass), and Joseph Branciforte (drums).

This is an ambitious and well-received debut from the group with much to enjoy.  If you cherish the sounds of the aforementioned avant-rock groups then there should be plenty for you to like about the music contained within Ambit.

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Video Sunday: Tomas Fujiwara Trio

Tomas Fujiwara Trio "Insomniac's Delight"
@ Cornelia Street Café 10-23-14

NY based drummer Tomas Fujiwara has a new trio recording coming out soon on Relative Pitch Records called Variable Bets (it's in our review queue) and this recent recording from the Cornelia Street Cafe captured our ears. Built around a rather angular melody, "Insomniac's Delight" is full of twists - try skipping ahead to the 10 minute mark.

Tomas Fujiwara, drums, compositions
Ralph Alessi, trumpet
Brandon Seabrook, guitar

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Robin Hayward - Nouveau Saxhorn Nouveau Basse (Pogus, 2014) ****½

By Stef

Almost to the day two hundred years ago, Adolphe Sax was born in Dinant, Belgium. He created many new instruments, including what we now know as the saxophone, but also this strange hybrid, the saxhorn, a six valve horn of which the valves could only be used independently. The instrument never got any success.

Now, tuba-player and modern composer Robin Hayward reworked the instrument, with valve combinations allowing for microtonal playing. To make things even more complex, Hayward put six loudspeakers in a room, through which the tones resonate, and move from one speaker to the next, creating an interesting effect. The first track, "Plateau Square", offers deep long stretched tones, which echo like a foghorn over the sea, resonating in space in various layers, offering a strange impression of quiet power, harmonious loneliness and solid emptiness. It is beautiful and unique, and even at twenty-two minutes of monotonous

The second tune, "Travel Stain", brings a duet between the tuba and a classical guitar, played by Seth Josel, continuing the stretched tones, yet with more changes of pitch, entering into a calm, more intimate yet intense dialgue with the strings. Josel's playing is minimal to say the least, plucking slow chords or single strings, sprinkled around the saxhorn's volume, gradually coming more to the foreground, shortening the tones to little droplets of sound.

The longest track lasts half an hour, and is a magnificent tribute to the deep reverberating sound of the instrument. No more layers of tone here, but the naked power of one instrument, almost organically growing out of the surrounding silence. It sounds like something fundamental, like the primal rumbling of the earth or the universe, the basic sound that lies below it all, and that now, for once, is coming to the surface, within our limited auditory range, as a special treat. And hearing that, even for half an hour, is very short, yet then for the last few minutes the tone shifts to very high, almost angelic multiphonics, adding an entirely new dimension to this magnificent piece.

Regardless how strange Adolphe Sax's original instrument, or how unusual Hayward's own custom-made valve tuba, the result is fabulous: a great tribute to musical instruments, their power and the sounds they can bring us.

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