Dominic Lash - an Artist Deep Dive

By Lee Rice Epstein

Dominic Lash is an exceptional creative musician, performing under his own name, in groups with Evan Parker and Joe Morris, and as a member of the Set Ensemble and the Convergence Quartet. In 2015, Lash started released short albums of creative music on Bandcamp with members of the Set Ensemble and other creative improvisers. Here’s a roundup of a few of those albums.

Dominic Lash, Michael Maierhof & Birgit Ulher - Hamburg Meeting (Self, 2015) ****

The album and track titles give you everything you need to know about this improvised session with Dominic Lash (bass), Michael Maierhof (cello), and Birgit Ulher (trumpet). One day, in Hamburg, the three assembled for an improvised session. It’s an exciting and challenging moment, luckily captured for our benefit. Much of the challenge comes from keeping track of the sounds recorded, where they’re coming from, who could be playing them, and how the sounds are being made. The whole album is an exercise in extended techniques. Ulher and Maierhof were both new to me here, but now I’ve surely got to hear more of their work. Ulher is the standout, if there can be one, if only because she takes the trumpet to some exciting, new places. “First Meeting Part 1” opens the album with Maierhof high and quiet on cello, Ulher lightly sputtering, and Lash accenting. It isn’t long before all three begin trading notes, gathering silence that will soon disappear completely. On “First Meeting Part 2,” Ulher plays muted staccato and clattering trumpet valves. Later, in the opening of “First Meeting Part 3,” Lash or Maierhof bows tightly against muted strings while Ulher seems to blow air plainly through the trumpet before her first full, rumbling note appears about a minute later. Gradually, a storm of sound pulls itself together, then dissipates into a Lash solo. With calmly sustained notes, backed by various noise effects and clacking, Lash nearly captures something concrete from the ephemerality of this meeting, for approximately 2 seconds. At the midpoint, the mics capture someone let out a cough. Then, Ulher’s trumpet returns to the fore, and the group patiently moves on.

Dominic Lash - Riesenfalter (Bandcamp, 2015) ****

Track two combined from two live performances, one at ABC No-Rio in New York (5th May 2011) and the other in Cambridge, England (24th February 2012); recorded and mixed by Dominic Lash

This interesting, at times thrilling, album features Lash in a duo with fellow Set Ensemble member David Stent. Doubling on guitar and electronics, Lash also contributes double bass and clarinet. The opener and closer, “The Ballad of Mavis Palmer” and “The Sound of Other Rooms,” were recorded in a single session. Both are fascinating duo improvisations. The soundscapes are tense without seeming rushed. Stent is a remarkable guitarist, capable of wringing some delicate, Bailey-esque sounds. An album of songs like these would be fine enough, but the middle track “Two Continents” is taken up with a half-hour of live improvisation that was somehow combined from two different live performances. The first was in New York, May 2011, and the second was Cambridge in February 2012. I honestly don’t know how the two were cut together, but the mixing was done by Lash himself and the resultant track is well worth the admittedly budget-friendly cost of the album. There’s no real seasonal or geographic fixed point in the improvisation, but the freeness of the duo, especially around 8 minutes in, with Stent on guitar and Lash on bass, feels distinct and personal. Having heard Stent in the larger Set Ensemble, this was my first time hearing him in a small group, and his connection to Lash is strong. They’re on some similar kind of wavelength, for sure, and it’s one I’m happy to dip into. Around the halfway point, there’s a sustained fugue of feedback and distortion, which builds for several minutes to another guitar/bass duet, with Lash walking and Stent clutching riffs from midair. The two settle into an extended sequence, absent electronics, that is definitely one of the best collective improvisations from all four albums.

Dominic Lash - For Four (Bandcamp, 2015) ***½ 

Kate Lash, flute; Stefan Thut, cello; Tim Parkinson, piano; Dominic Lash, objects

Another entry in the growing category of improvised musicians breathing life into silence. Thoughtful, creative, sensitive, these compositions provide some respite from the clashing noise of life. The group here is Kate Lash on flute, Stefan Thut on cello, Tim Parkinson on piano, and Dominic Lash on objects. This is the kind of subtle, meditative piece I would love to see performed live, in part to learn what “objects” means in a performance. One thing I dislike about digital music is the absence of things like liner notes and musician credits. This is why I’m pleased about the rise of Bandcamp, which, unlike iTunes, provides a lot of space for musicians to post notes and details about their recordings that provide some important context for listening to the music. For Four is a perfect case in point. On record, this is a lovely composition, filled with the kind of Feldman-esque spacious minimalism you hear in Tyshawn Sorey’s work. But, back to those notes. There are some interesting details in the notes on Bandcamp, particularly “recorded during 2013 by Dominic Lash (except Stefan Thut recorded by Stefan Thut) edited, assembled, mixed and mastered by Dominic Lash.” So, how to take this information and approach the recording in a new way? There are still so many questions, such as, Was Thut at the recording or listening to the original recording? What does it mean the recording was assembled? Even, how rigidly composed is a piece like “For Four”? There are dozens of questions worth asking that may reveal additional nuances to the piece. But ultimately, that’s a curious itch for my brain to scratch. For, replaying the album, I’m plunged again into a simmering ambience that carries me through from start to finish, calming my mind, acting as a bulwark against the surrounding chaos.

Dominic Lash - Four Compositions, 2011-2015 (Spoonhunt, 2015) ***½

This set features members of the Set Ensemble in recorded and live settings. The opening and closing tracks, “Two Simultaneous Solos” and “One Simultaneous Duo,” have Lash in a duo with Stefan Thut. “Two Simultaneous Solos” is an extremely quiet duet, at the most plaintive edges of both instruments, with calm, patient bowing sporadically dropping into a mostly silent background. This album is probably where my lack of familiarity with the Wandelweiser Group leaves me at a disadvantage. But I found “Preferential Uptake” and “Notes, Paper and Time” to be much more engaging than the duets, with “Notes, Paper and Time” a wholly captivating listening experience. Once the metronomes are set in motion, the quartet moves in unison through blocks of sound. Over time, the metronomes move out of sync, and the blocks become longer, turning into wide, flat bricks, the sound becoming heavy and dense. By minute 10, everyone’s playing a distinct line, creating tension in mounting an organic juxtaposition against the ticking metronomes. The whole is truly captivating, and I’m excited to hear more from Lash and the Set Ensemble.

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Black Top with Evan Parker - #Two (Babel, 2015) ***½

By Derek Stone

Black Top is Pat Thomas and Orphy Robinson, two multi-instrumentalists who have steadily made a name for themselves in the UK experimental and improvisational scene. Their debut, entitled #One, was recorded with saxophonist Steve Williamson. That album, which was “dedicated to exploring the intersection between live instruments and lo-fi technology,” was a fascinating mash-up of tinny synths, piano, marimba, skittering loops, and Williamson’s austere saxophone. Unlike many jazz pieces that utilize electronics in a purely supplementary fashion - beats splattered indiscriminately over the “core” ensemble - #One attempted to weld them together and mask the seams. For the most part, it was a great success.

Black Top return here with a different special guest, Evan Parker. Parker himself  is no stranger to experiments with electronic sound; his ElectroAcoustic Ensemble has been active since 1990, and their last recording Seven (reviewed here by Martin Schray) is an intriguing album that gets better with each listen. Despite their similarities, however, the two groups are vastly different in other ways - whereas Parker’s ElectroAcoustic Ensemble deals with swathes of electronic sound, bubbling sci-fi pulses, and abstract swirls that threaten to engulf the listener entirely, Black Top are more drawn to the rhythmic and the repetitive. This is not surprising when one considers the origin of these two musicians - Orphy Robinson is of Jamaican descent, and Pat Thomas’ early musical interests took him not only to classical music and jazz, but to reggae music. These ties to Afro-Caribbean music comprise the beating heart of Black Top’s experiments in sound, and they give #Two an enthralling air of idiosyncrasy.

“Tourmaline” opens with just Parker and Thomas, but Orphy Robinson eventually joins in to contribute electronics. On “Gold,” Robinson taps out an alluring figure on bass marimba, while Thomas’s piano slips into a frenzied stream of notes. Meanwhile, Evan Parker plays with a relatively reserved air. “Star Line Was What He Said!” takes things into more adventurous territory, with the electronic elements becoming more abstract: there are abrasive stabs of static, a repetitive vocal loop, and even some stretches of lo-fi techno. When the track is nearing its end, Thomas returns to the piano and offers a stuttering, circular series of notes - it would seem like a perfectly logical accompaniment to Parker’s improvisations if not for the electronics, which house these largely familiar free-jazz tropes in a new and somewhat startling context.

On “Ivory, Uvory and We Very,” the trio come to resemble a traditional jazz group, with Thomas sticking to piano and Robinson sitting down at the drum-kit. Interestingly, it is here where Parker sounds most comfortable, playing with more unrestrained energy and pushing his sax into the higher registers. “Ebony Speaks Like a Drum” continues that format, Thomas playing the piano with a percussive force that rivals Cecil Taylor and Robinson seeking to hold everything together with an unwavering tempo.

“Afronauts Ra Black Fore Moor” is the longest piece on the album, and it’s characterized by churning electronics and occasional lo-fi beats that arise and dissipate at random. Evan Parker takes a more spacious approach to playing here, sticking to a more subdued style that is both meditative and incredibly expressive. Soon, Thomas is at the piano again, and the duo of he and Parker are encased in an unsettling array of vocal loops. With Thomas’s uncanny approximation of honky-tonk, the ghostly voices and Parker’s playing that steadily increases in both speed and intensity, this piece is perhaps the most enthralling on the album. It captures well the thing that Black Top does best: taking various elements of improvisational jazz from the last fifty years and repurposing them, inserting them into fresh contexts and and juxtaposing them with sounds that are often viewed as disparate and unrelated.

On the final track, “Carried Way Beyond,” Robinson utilizes the steel pan to great effect, calling to mind the ethnic sounds of the Caribbean. Meanwhile, Thomas traces out a straightforward, dancy rhythm on the piano that matches Robinson’s in its hints of Afro-Caribbean music. Eventually, however, these somewhat familiar traces are obliterated, only to be replaced by a vintage drum-loop, menacing synth-line, and ethereal washes of sound.

Perhaps predictably, my favorite parts of #Two were when the trio played with a more traditional setup - in these moments, there seemed to be more passion, more energy, and a greater sense of cohesion between the three players. In any case, it’s a fine experiment, and I can’t wait to see where the two members of Black Top go next in their sonic explorations.

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Common Objects - Whitewashed with Line (Another Timbre, 2015) *****

By Stefan Wood

Common Objects is a group comprised of John Butcher (saxophones), Angharad Davies (violin), Rhodri Davies (harps), and Lee Patterson (amplified devices and processes). Their double-disc album, "Whitewashed with Lines," is taken from two performances, a year apart; "Cup and Ring," from The Mining Institute, Newcastle upon Tyne in 2014, and "Repose and Vertigo," from Tunstall Chapel, University College, Durham in 2013.

This is some of the most gorgeous abstract music I have heard this past year. There are two approaches on this album. "Cup and Ring" is a Davies composition, based on European primitive art forms of marked cups and rings for notes. By using this method Davies builds on the model established by composers like John Cage, where compositions are built by chance methods or notations, playing between rigid forms and personal expressions. "Cup and Ring" is a 57-minute masterwork of atmospheric sounds, punctuated by designed notations of winds, strings and electronics, and above all, leads the listener on a journey that builds slowly but is rewarded throughout by textures, movements, and flavors. "Repose and Vertigo" is alternatively an improvised work, with similar sounds, but more interactive, less designed. Butcher's staccato like sounds really penetrate the smoothness of the electronics. Silence provides key breaks, like pauses from movement to movement. It is a great testament to the musicians that the sounds are always consistently engaging and builds upon itself to create a unique whole.

Excellent work; one of the finest releases of the past year.

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Otomo Yoshihide - Guitar Solo 2015 RIGHT (Doubtmusic, 2015) ****

By Nicola Negri

Last year Otomo Yoshihide released Guitar Solo 2015 LEFT, in which he paid tribute to his former teacher Masayuki Takayanagi, one of the most important figures of the Japanese free music scene from the Sixties onward. In that album, among original compositions and improvisations, Otomo revisited two free jazz classics closely related to Takayanagi (“Song for Che” and “Lonely Woman”), and played the very same guitar, a 1963 Gibson ES-175, that his teacher used for a large part of his career, and with which he recorded such masterpieces as the album “Lonely Woman” in 1982.

Guitar Solo 2015 RIGHT can be considered a sort of a twin release, with an almost identical title and cover art, in which Otomo uses the same guitar, even if the material is totally different.
In this case we have a “reconstruction” of a piece that was originally created for the exhibition "Otomo Yoshihide: Between MUSIC and ART", that was held in Tokyo between 2014 and 2015. For that occasion, the musician recorded a total of 123 takes ranging in length from a few seconds to a minute. After the recording the material was given to Akihito Matsumoto, that used it to feed the sound system at the exhibition, controlling the output through a computer program that mixed the fragments in always changing configurations.

Even in this aspect the connection with Takayanagi is strong, with a work that has a deep resonance of the "automated" experiments that the guitarist explored in his later years, as in "Action Direct". The strategies employed here, and the resulting sounds, are very different, though.

Consisting of a single piece over sixty minutes in length, this record has no defined identity. The opening is reminiscent of the free improvisation language pioneered by Derek Bailey, with short bursts of sound intersecting and overlapping through the sound field. Soon the atmosphere changes and ghosts of melodies emerge, in contrast to the previous samples. This dialogue continues throughout the entire track, with ever-changing patterns and sounds, but always keeping a relaxed approach that creates an apparently static, hypnotic environment, even if the music is in a flux of continuous transformation and the guitar is explored in all its sonic possibilities.

The absence of any real development may well be the defining trait of this record, but the end result is far from boring, and demonstrates once again Otomo's ability in creating a rich structural arc through seemingly distant musical fragments, and his mastery in using both a vast vocabulary of extended techniques and more traditional approaches on the guitar.

A fascinating blend of improvisation, randomness and precise compositional logic, this record is a major addition to Otomo's discography.

Highly recommended.

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Jorrit Dijkstra, Pandelis Karayorgis, Nate McBride and Curt Newton – Matchbox (Driff, 2015) ****

By Troy Dostert

Labelmates Jorrit Dijkstra and Pandelis Karayorgis, who have been at the helm of Driff Records for a few years now, delight in creating structured improvisations that are challenging and demanding while still retaining a strong melodic foundation.  In this respect they clearly owe a good deal to the inspiration of artists like Steve Lacy, to whom they’ve paid tribute on three records now with the group the Whammies (on their most recent release, see Stefan Wood’s review).  Here they are joined by bassist Nate McBride and drummer Curt Newton, both of whom Karayorgis has worked with extensively, and as a rhythm section open to fluidity while still remaining well-grounded in pulse and meter, they’re hard to top.  The results are impressive, with ten enjoyable vehicles for post-bop exploration.

Dijkstra is a dynamic voice on alto sax, as he amply demonstrates on the record’s hard-charging opener, “Fourteen Squares,” or later on the record, with “All For It,” offering impassioned flurries of notes and incisive rhythmic conversation with Karayorgis.  He also brings a sensitive temper to some of the less aggressive tracks, including the loping “Drooze,” constructed around an almost danceable melody that Dijkstra establishes with grace and subtlety.  Somewhat less effective are the tracks on which he plays something called a “lyricon,” an electronic wind synthesizer that Dijkstra has been introducing into his music for some time—but here it tends more to distract than to complement the music.  I could only detect it on a few of the tracks, however, and for the majority of the album Dijkstra sticks to the conventional alto, on which he definitely shines.

Pianist Karayorgis’s debt to Monk has long been noted, and it’s clearly evident here in his quirky melodic and off-center rhythmic imagination.  But he’s also got a much more powerfully percussive side to his playing—a bit of Cecil Taylor shines through on the suitably named “Entanglement,” and it’s a lot of fun to hear him roam the piano with cascading clusters of notes, as Dijkstra joins in enthusiastically, contributing to the surging power of the track.

As for McBride and Newton, they bear out the advantages of their frequent collaborations, as they are highly skilled in supporting these intricate compositions and keeping things just under control, even during the more adventurous moments on the record.  This release is a very fine one, and more evidence that Driff is becoming a strong conduit for a terrific partnership of like-minded musicians.

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Matt Lavelle, Jack De Salvo & Tom Cabrera - Sumari (Unseen Rain, 2015) ***½

By Paul Acquaro

I first put on Sumari while I was driving through the Catskills in New York State over the summer, little did I know how geographically apropos it was. The trio on Sumari has its roots in the Hudson valley, going back over 20 years, and the inspiration of the name has something do with a series called the Seth Books, a study of paranormal experiences by Jane Roberts, who happened to be from the Albany area (just a bit north of the Catskills). I’m not sure there is anything to it, but it seemed somewhat interesting.

The musicians on Sumari are Matt Lavelle on trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, pocket trumpet, alto clarinet, Jack De Salvo on cello and mandola guitar, and Tom Cabrera the dumbeq, rik, frame drums, bass drum, percussion. The number of instruments between them leads to a wide array of musical combinations.

The album starts off with ’Seth Dance', and as the bass and drums get into a looping groove, Lavelle comes in on trumpet with a slightly sourish tone. The song has a hypnotic effect, the choice of timber is quite interesting, and there is an air of mystery to the track. The next track, 'Counterparts Are Comparatively Encountered’ is a bit more stream of consciousness. The track, which is the longest on the album, never quite 'takes off' however the tension that builds is quite palpable. Track three, 'Scientific Cults and Private Paranoias’, like the first, is built on a repetitive groove, however, this time, Lavelle employs a brighter tone on the trumpet and DeSalvo creates an earthy rhythmic texture on his mandola guitar that lends an exotic flavor to the track.

Most engaging is hearing hear how closely the musicians listen to each other, the other tracks that follow have varying approaches, but across all, it’s the interplay that really comes through. From the modes and scales Lavelle uses, to the stringed instruments that DeSalvo chooses, to the various percussion instruments Cabrerea plays, there is a strong interconnectedness in their playing, and the mix of instruments with the free form improvisation touch on something felt rather than spoken.

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Meet The Danes

A few recent releases led by Danish musicians who suggest updated perspectives - sometimes bold, sometimes provocative, sometimes twisted - on the future of jazz and improvised music.

By Eyal Hareuveni

Kasper Tom 5 - I do admire things that are only what they are (Barefoot Records, 2015) ****

Aarhus-based drummer and composer Kasper Tom Christiansen is one of the members of the Copenhagen-based musicians collective and label, Barefoot Records. His sophomore release with his international quintet, following Ost Bingo Skruer (Barefoot Records, 2013), offers his challenging compositions, employing wisely the individual voices of this group. The quintet feature the same line up of the debut album - experienced German clarinet player Rudi Mahall, known from the Globe Unity Orchestra and his work with pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and Aki Takase who also plays in another Christensen-led group, FUSK quartet; close collaborator of Christiansen in few other outfits, Polish, Copenhagen-based trumpeter Tomasz Dąbrowski; Swedish trombonist Petter Hängsel and Danish bass player Jens Mikkel Madsen, now residing in Malmö, Sweden.

The architecture of Christiansen compositions and his tonal language does not attempt to follow conventional jazz sensibility. The seven new compositions, recorded live when the group was in top form, develop along loose outlines, based on fleeting melodies, patiently constructing and reconstructing the shifting, complex dynamics. The quintet alternates organically  between imaginative sonic searches to a clever exploration of the rich spectrum of the horns voices, articulating the melody from different angles and constant changing pulses, never settles on a conventional mode. The charismatic, commanding solos of  Mahal and Dąbrowski charge these pieces with poetic intensity and profound emotional appeal.  Their intertwining solos on “Play or Die” and the closing “Vranjo” are the highlights of this warmly recommended album.

Lars Fiil - Frit Fald (Fiil Free Records, 2015) ****

Copenhagen-based pianist Lars Fiil pianist began his career in a storm. In 2010 he won the prestigious Young Danish Jazz Comets with his quartet, and his quartet debut, Reconsideration (Fiil Free, 2011) featuring bass player Madsen (with whom he play in Madsen’s I Think You're Awesome),  was nominated for the Danish Jazz Award. But since then, unfortunately, his recorded output was quite limited. Fortunately Frit Fald (Danish for Free Fall), his sophomore album, justifies the waiting. It features his trio - saxophonist Lis Kruse, who played on his debut, and drummer Bjørn Heebøll, who collaborated before with pianist Agustí Fernández reeds titan Peter Brötzmann, three strong individual voices.

Fiil compositions have an elusive quality. All unfold slowly and gently as if following a highly personal logic and a unique sense of time and space, each one emphasizes different dynamics and atmosphere and all sound as challenging complex musical dilemmas but do not attempt to resolve it, but let it linger on long after the piece is over. The interplay is lyrical and intimate most of the time, stressing every breath, move or pulse of the fragmented melodies, enjoying the contemplative, highly poetic exploration of abstract, improvised  passages. Even when the trio interplay adopts a more playful mode as on “Afbryd Venligst Aldrig Altid”, or a searching one on “Improvisation #3” and “Improvisation #2”  it keeps its close and balanced chamber-like highly attentive dynamics.

Lars Fiil is a unique composer and improviser. Hope that he will not keep us waiting for his next release too long. .

Thomas Albæk Jakobsen's Flux - Voyager (Self Produced, 2015) ***

Aalborg-based drummer Thomas Albæk Jakobsen's sextet Flux's sophomore album, following Relationships (2013), feature almost the same lineup. Prolific pianist Søren Møller replaced Johan Aaen, but the rest of the group is the same one that recorded the debut album - reed player Ole Visby, bass player Kenneth Dahl Knudsen and guitarist Michael Møller Porsborg.

Voyager offers a mature but a very solid journey of the updated version of Flux. Jacobsen explains that his new compositions are informed by the constant touring experience. Eventually this experience led him to write more open-ended pieces, not binded by jazz legacy, each one alludes to the next, and all suggest an emphatic atmosphere of an inspired jam session. Flux charges his strong themes with clever interpretations, highlighting the individual voices of Møller, Porsborg and especially Visby, all three enjoying the tight rhythmic support of Jacobsen and Knudsen. The most interesting composition is the last one, “Long Johns”, spare yet highly cinematic piece, with haunting, melancholic tone.

Television Pickup: Music for Runners/We Take the Bikes and Head Home (Boogie Post Recordings) ****

 

For Copenhagen-based composer and keyboards player Katrine Amsler the terms jazz and rock are simply four-letters words from a bygone era. She describes her Television Pickup band as an “android cinema orchestra playing songs from films you wish you had seen” and as a “Nightmare cocktail lounge, dystopian disco, a whimsical carnival from a William Gibson future”. She likes to experiment with sounds outside of their context, playing with counter-melodic and counter-rhythmic segments, clashing programmed instruments and preset MIDI sounds with live ones.

The double album offers Television Pickup in two incarnations. The current Music for Runners incarnation feature Amsler partner-guitarist Swedish Samuel Hällkvist plus guitarist Stephan Sieben, Swedish bass player Johannes Burström: and drummer Knut Finsrud. It offers a set of futuristic, kaleidoscopic sonic cocktails where you can taste almost anything- fat and poppish synthesizers lines, fusion virtuoso guitar solos, brief and chaotic improvisations and vocal art, all wrapped in tight, playful songs. These multi-layered songs manage to blend the almost-industrial, otherworldly electronic keyboards sounds with the technical wizardry of Hällkvist and Sieben, all spiraled by the tight rhythmic drive of Burström and Finsrud. The cinematic pieces have a lasting haunting emotional impact despite its programmed, distant and claustrophobic mix of sounds.

The 2010 We Take the Bikes and Head incarnation (released before as a limited-edition book in 2012) feature German sax player Thomas Backman, instead of guitarist Sieben, and drummer Michala Østergaard-Nielsen plays along Finsrud, augmented by vocalists Qarin Wikström, Erika Angell and Mike Højgaard. This album stresses another side of Amsler compositional ideas with a much warmer vibe. Her sonically hybridized compositions are based on evocative poetic stories and spoken word passages and wordless voices, offering a more structured narrative and accessible, rhythmic, song-like textures. These short songs have strong melodic themes, using much less programmed sounds., still, all suggest the highly idiosyncratic and iconoclastic language of Amsler.

Laser Nun (Insula Music, 2015) ***

If Television Pickup challenges modern jazz aficionados snobbism in elegant, tempting manner, the Copenhagen-based duo Laser Nun invites these snobs to a take-no-prisoners street fight. Guitarist Lars Bech Pilgaard, known from the free-noise-improv group Svin, and drummer Anders Vestergaard, who plays in like-minded trio Yes Deer, but also plays with more jazz-oriented musicians as pianist Jacob Anderskov (on his recent trio album, Kinetics (The Path) [Habitable Exomusics Volume], Ilk Music. 2015)

The duo itself testifies about its music: “ear-piercing feedback performed with a mix of omni-religious transcendence and laser-like stupidity”. True to its mission. the duo debut is released in a limited-edition cassette. The two sides, titled “A” and “B”, offer a highly inventive and quite varied torrent of noisy feedbacks, intensified by manic, massive drumming, and surprising by the powerful rhythmic drive of “B”. Both Pilgaard and Vestergaard keep pushing to the utmost climatic extremes and then some more, creating intense, ear-piercing textures of nuanced noises.

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Spinifex - Veiled & Maximus

By Eric McDowell

To celebrate their 10-year anniversary, Dutch shape-shifters Spinifex have released two new albums—Veiled, from the core quintet, and Maximus, with seven guests from around the globe. (They’ve also released a 5-disc set packaging these two with Triodia and last year’s Hipsters Gone Ballistic, their first two albums, plus a live compilation—quite a good deal if you want to buy in bulk.) What’s exciting—and impressive—about Spinifex’s music is the way the group manages to absorb and synthesize a variety of influences (jazz, punk, metal, Indian, etc.) and then produce something greater than a simple grab-bag of styles. A parallel feat, they’re also able to foreground technical mastery via incredibly tight, complex structures and at the same time leave room for freer play and discovery. If you haven’t heard Spinifex yet, now is the perfect time to dive in.

Spinifex - Veiled (TryTone, 2015) ****

Veiled is the group’s second record as a quintet, with Tobias Klein on alto sax and clarinet, Piotr Damasiewics or Gijs Levelt on trumpet, Jasper Stadhouders on guitar, Gonçalo Almeida on bass, and Philipp Moser on drums. The album opens with “Don’t Feed the Fox,” whose looping odd-meter groove lays the groundwork for some high-octane horn and guitar soloing. From there things darken with the grim metal feel of “Palinka Express,” before “As Above, So Below” shifts gears again, closer to the jazz mode. The title track keeps the cycle of genres turning, as Hindustani singer Priya Purushothaman, a collaborator on the group’s Bollycore project, adds her vocals to the mix—a perfect addition to the piece’s atmospheric first half, though unfortunately she’s missing in the hard rocking second half. Later, the group revisits their Indian influence with “Brindavana Saranga.”

As tight and disciplined as a group like this needs to be in order to do justice their wide-ranging influences, Spinifex aren’t afraid to explore unmapped territory, either. “Bamlib” and “Bilmab,” two short pieces at the very center of the album (note the palindrome), tread the border between composition and improvisation, a balancing act kept up by “Knoest” and “Vibrate in Sympathy.” While the freer passages themselves on Veiled are often wonderfully chaotic, for better or worse we never quite lose the sense that the ultimate destination is predetermined. The longest track and closer, “Particle R,” develops from tense ambience into a bouncy groove—grounding another strong trumpet solo—and from there into a darkly funky drum feature, Moser whipping polyrhythms over the hypnotic guitar/bass ostinato. As if all the album’s disparate voices had finally caught up with each other, Veiled ends with a moment of grand fury, well worth listening up to.

Recommended—especially for fans of technical, adventurous, hybrid jazz.

Spinifex – Maximus (Trytone, 2015) ****½

But it would be a shame to stop short of Maximus. Truly earning the album title, here the quintet is augmented by six—yes, six—bonus horns (plus another drummer). The group certainly doesn’t fail to make good use of its guests, putting them to work and showcasing them at the same time. These compositions can’t be easy to learn, but the added players go beyond following along to indeed “maximize” the potential already well established on the above album. The guests, an international assembly, include: Bart Maris on trumpet, Matthias Muche and Jeb Bishop on trombones, Pascal Rousseau on tuba, Edoardo Marraffa on tenor sax, Josh Sinton on baritone sax, and Onno Govaert on drums.

For my money, the six additional horns overload the music in the most wonderful way. Where Veiled seemed perhaps a little too controlled at times, the tunes on Maximus are bursting with a multiplicity of competing voices. The second drummer creates the effect of just a touch of welcome and inevitable looseness as the super-group navigates the labyrinthine compositions. Listening to the exuberance of the playing, somehow always escalating, you get a sense of mutual egging-on, of a well-met challenge to go all out. Everyone here seems to bring out the best in each other, perhaps even things otherwise inaccessible.

To mention only a few highlights… “Ost,” the opener, gives three and a half minutes to the horns—cinematically melodic and freely improvising by turns—before rocketing into Spinifex’s familiar brand of complex ensemble playing, only to fall apart and then reassemble into a lumbering groove that wouldn’t be far out of place on an early King Crimson record. The reprised “Knoest” offers a chance to compare the two line-ups side-by-side, and “Mongibello” features a nice imitation Threadgill melody. “Stupid Neckchain” is another technical showcase, as voice by voice the horns trade phrases: slurring, muttering, whispering, growling—as if to throw off the titular restraint. And “Birch,” punctuated again and again by a series of accelerating stomps of sound, is an 18-minute monster. We get everything from snaking unisons to free-form blowing—a bountiful piece from a bountiful group of musicians.

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Nate Wooley & Ken Vandermark Duo - All Directions Home (Audiographic, 2015) ****

By Lee Rice Epstein

Recorded last summer at The Sugar Maple, in Milwaukee, the latest release from Ken Vandermark and Nate Wooley, All Directions Home, wastes exactly no time getting going. The opener, Vandermark’s “Another Lecture (For Walter Benjamin),” is a hearty, up-tempo blues that absolutely swings. Vandermark and Wooley trade solos woven between unison lines. They rapidly bound ideas back and forth, with Vandermark on baritone sax and Wooley playing to the middle. About a minute in, they lock into a fantastic melody, with Vandermark bounding through a deep bass-like riff, followed by a return to the playful start-stop of the opening. Later, Vandermark forcefully propels Wooley’s “Lutoslawski,” filling in for an absent rhythm section. He fully owns the lower register, scattering notes across the spectrum during his solos. His second, about two-and-a-half minutes in, takes on the entire breadth of the instrument, and is one my favorite solos on the album. “Battle Piece C,” presents a very different view of Wooley’s Battle Pieces project, which was documented last year in a quartet setting (and was one of my personal favorites of 2015). Here, Vandemark lays out a series of pops and squeaks, while Wooley slowly fades in with breathy solo. There’s no tape deconstruction, and the whole track ends after only a couple of minutes. It prompted me to wonder about a future duos-trios-quartets Battle Pieces set, really pushing the limits of that compositional framework.

“Calling (For Elfriede Jelinek)” is the intensely meditative centerpiece; a showcase for extended techniques from both Vandermark and Wooley, it’s also the most emotionally demanding piece on the album. Knowledge of Jelinek or her work as a novelist and playwright certainly isn’t required, but Vandermark has composed a piece that nicely echoes themes found in her writing. His yearning extended solo towards the end is buoyed by Wooley’s near-silent flutter. Patiently, the two fade to silence, before jumping right into Vandermark’s fantastic “Such Science (For Duke Ellington and Muhammad Ali).” I don’t know if it’ll happen, but I would love to hear an Audio One or Resonance Ensemble take on this. Towards the end, Vandermark and Wooley layer contrasting solos, then abruptly restate the theme in the final 10 seconds. It’s a thrill ride, start to finish.

There are two covers, Ornette Coleman’s “I Heard It Over the Radio” (also covered by Aki Takase and Silke Eberhard on their duo outing) and ‘Mississippi’ Fred McDowell’s “Done Left Here.” On “I Heard It Over the Radio,” Vandermark and Wooley’s approach draws out the blues that’s always at the heart of Coleman’s music, slows the tempo slightly, and packs a lot of space around the melody, which doesn’t appear until about a minute in. Wooley plays a sprightly, singing solo at the midpoint, before the two return to the melody. There’s an apt playfulness to the arrangement, and a really heartfelt, brief solo from Vandermark caps a year of tributes to the great Coleman. Closing the album, “Done Left Here” is presented as a fairly straightforward cover, the duo laying its contemporary sound atop a foundation of McDowell’s hill country blues. Wooley screams a high register solo, while Vandermark plays a churning take on McDowell’s slide-guitar run. Then comes a lengthy fade, during which the two quietly trade off the melody, before ending on a unison line, echoing the very first notes of the album.

Unfortunately, All Directions Home” is yet another release that dropped late in the year and was mostly passed over, save perhaps those following Vandermark and Wooley’s career very closely. The pairing is a fruitful one, with two bridging their deep interests in jazz history and tradition with their equally unique talents using extended techniques and crafting avant-garde compositions. In just a few years, we’ve already had two albums, and I really hope this pace continues. Highly recommended.

Video of the two at Issue Project Room (looks like a 9-part series)

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Ken Vandermark - Site Specific (Audiographic, 2015) ****

By Paul Acquaro


Site Specific is a neat entry in the Ken Vandermark oeuvre: a minimalistic, beautifully bound book packed with two CDs capturing live solo field performances in '14 and '15, showcasing Vandermark's photographs taken as he has toured the world. It's not a travelogue or tour documentary, it doesn't capture people, or landscapes, rather it's images of very specific objects at sites arranged suite like. Time and place take a back seat to imagery, textures and emerging themes.

For example, an image from Wormer in 2014 with prominent san-serif lettering is placed on a facing page with an image from Omaha (also from 2014) also with the bold lettering but now getting more textual, which becomes the stronger theme in the image from Chicago with raised block letters on the next page. The images are appealing as the attention to the colors, shapes, and framing is quite intriguing.

The whole project is about the environment - not in the green sense but in the where you are now sense, and the four sets of recordings that make up these two discs are recorded in different places, in the field, with the sound of the instruments intimately linked to nearby objects and features. Throughout the tracks, Vandermark switches between clarinet, tenor, and baritone sax.

Music-wise, the first set begins with a knotty muscular theme that teeters on the edge of rambunctious for the duration. You can hear the implied rhythm section, feel the pulse, and may even be tempted to try to nod along. The first sequence of tracks are spacious and light, but much like the images, the sequence builds from track to track, and by the seventh, the music has developed into dense and elliptical patterns that seem like burlap sheets of sound. Track eight inverses the dynamic, instead of the low rumble, Vandermark works the high register. The second set begins with a warmer sound - recorded under a train trestle in Louisville, Kentucky.  The final most extreme environment is on Disc two, beginning with track six, with a series called "Pipe", recorded at a Louisville, Kentucky Skate Park (I assume in, around, or quite near a half-pipe).

Site Specific is a coffee table book that physically fits a small coffee table but really fills up a lot of aesthetic space. The photography is worth a purposeful viewing as you listen to the accompanying sounds.

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