Joe McPhee/Thurston Moore/Bill Nace: Last Notes (Open Mouth, 2013) ****½

By Martin Schray

Berlin in a not too distant future after the musical revolution:

Three months ago Justin Bieber was arrested at the Russian border where he was trying to ask for musical exile – he was on the run. American Idol has been banned from television for good, the whereabouts of former stars like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and many others are unknown. A young angry audience was fed up with their music and sent them packing. The latest, coolest and hippest thing is improvised music, preferably free jazz. New clubs and record stores spring up like mushrooms. 20-year-olds are ready to spend a fortune for original vinyl albums by Bill Dixon, David S. Ware, Supersilent or Last Exit.

In front of a new club called “La Brötz” with an adjacent record store three young people -  Oscar, Karl and Enna - are fumbling at their Apple glasses. You can hear only pieces of the conversation: “Yes, they are supposed to have super rare stuff…” – “Bill Dixon’s Edizioni Ferrari” – “AMM’s Ammmusic on Elektra …” – “I hope it’s not too late” - “… maybe it’s just a rumour”.

At 10 a.m. Elias, the shop owner, opens the doors. He is a man in his thirties who looks like a young Allen Ginsberg. The youngsters overwhelm him with questions. “Yes,” he answers, “there are some new LPs from an old lady who has cleaned out her late husband’s record collection. You find them here.” He points at two heavy wooden boxes in front of the counter. The young people ignore Elias now, they feel completely at ease and check out the stuff. The albums are in an excellent condition, the man must have been a connoisseur. Dixon’s and AMM’s album are not there but they find some rare FMP and RuneGrammofon LPs. Then Karl suddenly sees an LP on a board behind Elias. “What’s this?” he asks Elias, pointing at the cover. “It’s a trio LP with Joe McPhee on sax, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Bill Nace of Body/Heat fame on guitars, it’s called Last Notes. You can sometimes find the first part of the session on the video channels on the internet, but the vinyl is super rare, they only printed 250 copies then, but ….” “I heard about it, I don’t even know someone who knows someone who owns this record”, says Enna.  “What’s the music like?” asks Oscar. “It’s not like the noise tornado you might expect, well … maybe the flipside, but the A-side is actually magical, majestic, both meditative and adventurous music. Totally beautiful! Moore and Nace build up huge guitar feedback and sound walls while McPhee makes use of his magnificent tone. Imagine you listen to Sonic Youth’s outro cacophonies around 1990 with John Coltrane as a guest star. This might come close to it. It was recorded live at Roulette in NYC in 2012, but you must know something …” - “How much do you want for it?” asks Enna. “It’s not mine, that’s what I wanted to tell you. The old men in the café across the street, it’s theirs. I know the oldest one, he is in his eighties now. His name is Martin Schray. He and his friends Paolo Casertano, Paul Acquaro and Stef Gijssels, these are the others, they wrote for a free jazz blog Gijssels started. But that was a long time ago. Maybe you can ask them …”

Back to the present:

There is an edition of only 250 vinyl copies and as you can imagine the album was immediately sold out at the source but there are some copies left on the web. So you better be quick, it is great music.

Watch the end of the album here:

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Meetings with remarkable saxophonists

By Stef  

Last year we reviewed the fist volume of Eddie Prévost's "Meeting With Remarkable Saxophonists", called "All Told", with Evan Parker on sax and John Edwards on bass. We never highlighted the other two albums in the series : "All But", with John Butcher and Guillaume Viltard and "All Together" with Jason Yarde on sax and Oli Hayhurst on bass. All performances were recorded at the Network Theatre in London between May and August 2011.

All But - Meetings With Remarkable Saxophonists, Vol.2 (Matchless, 2012) ****

If it is difficult to match Evan Parker, you can rely on John Butcher to come to the same high level. Butcher shows his incredible skills on the instrument by sucking and slapping and blowing his instrument full of nervous tension, sounding like lusty blackbirds, whispering phantoms or raucous tantrums, as you see fit to describe it, but always as one with the trio, and offering great space and ideas for Prévost's skillful play of emphasis and pulse. Viltard, bassist with the London Improvisers Orchestra is good but less prominent, and at moments totally eclipsed by the fury of sax and drums. If you like Butcher, and you like Prévost, I can only recommend the album.


All Together - Meetings With Remarkable Saxophonists, Vol.3 (Matchless, 2012) ****

The real discovery is Jason Yarde, and to come in a series after Evan Parker and John Butcher says enough about the esteem Prévost has for the young musician. The quality is obvious. He can shout and scream full of relentless energy, exploring new sonic environments and alternating with very lyrical and calm passages, with phrases and rhythms that are real jazzy, and as part of a trio that moves as one. Hayhurst is good and quite jazzy too, quoting Charlie Haden in one of his solo moments ... and Prévost?  .... well he is Prévost ... all creative all present all in function of the music. The album consists of two lengthy improvisations, one of twenty-six minutes, the other almost twice as long, but which is captivating from beginning to end. A real treat.

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Relevant DVDs - New ones and not so new ones

Good free jazz and free music DVDs are hard to find, so it's always a kind of an amazing fact when a dedicated label is created that does only that : release DVDs of "contemporary jazz and free improvisation". The label is called Panrec and is based in Bonn, Germany.

Here are some of the great DVDs that they released recently.

The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet - Concert For Fukushima - Wels, 2011 (Pan & Trost, 2013)

This is a great and high quality recording of the famous Tentet but now with special guests from Japan;: Toshinori Kondo, Michiyo Yagi, Yoshihide Otomo and Akira Sakata, recorded at Wels, Austria, in 2011.

Hold on to everything that's dear to you .... and brace yourselves.

***

Nils Wogram & Simon Nabatov - Moods & Modes (PanRec, 2011)

Filmed at Radio Studio Zürich in July 2009, the DVD brings the entire concert of the trombonist and pianist, shifting moods indeed, ranging from romantic moments over playful improvisations to fierce battles. 

***

Hans W. Koch, Thomas Lehn, Ben Patterson & Jozef Cseres - Requiem For A Baby Grand - Final Piano Music For 8 Hands And Tools (PanRec, 2012)

The most incredible DVD in the series is this systematic destruction of a baby grand piano, which though built in 1901 and having survived two world wars, needed to be destroyed anyhow, so why not rescue it for rehearsal first for a couple of years, and then thoroughly screw, hammer and saw it to pieces? An interesting performance. More a statement than actual musical joy, but you never know

***

Simon Nabatov Plays Herbie Nichols (PanRec, 2010)

Despite all our goodwill, we cannot possibly review all albums we receive, and that includes Russian master pianist Simon Nabatov's excellent "Simon Nabatov - Spinning Songs Of Herbie Nichols-Solo", released on Leo Records last year. Fans of solo piano music and of improvisation should get both the DVD and the album, not only because of Nabotov's idiosyncratic take on Nichols, but also for the sheer joy of watching creativity at work per se.

***

Unlimited 23 - A documentary About Music Unlimited Festival 2009 (PanRec, 2010)

Shot in Wels, Austria, November 6–8, 2009, the concert and DVD  features Kristin Andersen, Lotte Anker, Martin Blume, Arnold de Boer, Katherina Bornefeld, Tony Buck, Sylvie Courvoisier, Chris Cutler, dieb13, Shayna Dunkelman, Peter Evans, Fred Frith, Lene Grenager, Noid Haberl, Terrie Hessels, Lindha Kallerdahl, DD Kern, Pamelia Kurstin, Okkyung Lee, Thomas Lehn, Koichi Makigami, Stephen O'Malley, Phil Minton, Andy Moor, Ikue Mori, Mark Nauseef, DJ Olive, Maggie Parkins, Sara Parkins, Zeena Parkins, Maja Ratkje, Peter Rehberg, Hild Sofie Tafjord, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Ute Wassermann, David Watson.

It is an amazing documentary with lots of variation, and a real strong presence of some of today's avant-garde female musicians.
***

And there are some other DVDs from other labels to which we should/could have paid more attention in the past.


Brötzmann - Ein Film von René Jeuckens, Thomas Mau und Grischa Windus (Siegersbusch, 2011)

A great film with concert performances and interesting pieces of interview with the master in his work space.

***

Soldier Of The Road - A Portrait Of Peter Brötzmann (Cinésolo, 2011) 

Produced and directed by Bernard Josse, the DVD gives a very honest interview and picture of Brötzmann as a musician, as a graphic artist, as a person, and as an icon, with interviews of other musicians like Han Bennink, Fred Van Hove, Evan Parker and many more.

***

Arts Interplay by Ebba Jahn (2008)

This less recent DVD brings several performances, starting with a long trio performance with Roy Campbell, Barre Phillips and John Betsch and with Maria Mitchell dancing. The music exists for the dancer, and the dancing is not always my thing, but nevertheless nice stuff. The second piece is "Spiritworld", an interview with Jeff Schlanger, painter specialized in capturing live performances, and to most of us possibly best known from the Vision Festival art work. "La Mémoire Et La Main" is a solo performance by Barre Phillips, and "Cellophan" a performance by Günther Christmann on cello. "Bass Quartet" says what it is, performed by Barre Phillips, Jan Roder, Berit Jung and Konrad Grüneberg.

It took me some time to find it, but it's worth getting.

***

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Tim Daisy - Streets In Time (Relay Recordings, 2013) ***½

Reviewed by Joe

Great to see a Tim Daisy album, one of the best drummers around (in my humble opinion). This is not the first record that Tim has produced under his name, if I understand correctly it's number seven in the Relay Recordings series - check out Tim's website to see the other recordings, often duo projects, but not all. On this album Tim has chosen a strong team of players; Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Steve Swell (trombone) and John Herbert (bass), all top performers on their instruments and well known throughout the modern music world as leaders in their own right. It's also an unusual combination with two brass for a front line, but it works very well.

Since we didn't get any information on the recording I can't say who wrote the six tunes on the CD, however they're all fine pieces with plenty of scope. The music falls into the free/composed sector, groups such as Vandermark 5, The Engines, Atomic, Motif and others are all proponents of this style where clear melodic structures are used and fused with free improvised techniques. Out of the six tunes on the record only two "Come to Rest" and "Giving Back" are out of tempo, the others all find a groove at some point and often some chord structure or ostinato figure. 

"Loud Noon", the first track uses a bass figure similar to the one used in "Night in Tunisia" to underpin the melody. It then builds a fine swinging atmosphere built on a non resolved chord which launches the two front line brass players. "Come to Rest"(tk2) is a cleverly placed impro' which segues into the title track "Streets in Time"(tk3). This artfully built piece has several subtle ideas which allow the two horns to develop solos. The first over a fine improvised cornet/drums duel. The two are gradually joined in the all out melodic 'ruckus' finally giving over to the trombone to develop a more harmonic area.

Tim Daisy uses his musicians to great effect by giving them plenty of space to express themselves. On "Inside A Room"(tk4) he lets the music unfold carefully over the eleven minutes, giving space for a bass solo, a quartet dialogue section, a trombone/bass/drums fight, a cornet/bass/drum dance, a drum solo and a final melody with bass, cornet and trombone playing peacefully over the soloing drums. 

The last two tunes are equally exciting as the earlier pieces. The open improvisation and gentle theme of "Giving Back"(tk5) and the wonderfully strong bass solo which opens "Distance"(tk6) shows how strong this group of players are, all are able to swing or throw caution to the wind and abandon structures as needed. The rhythm section always attentive to move in any direction whilst the 'blowers' give plenty of ideas for their team-mates to work with.  

The whole album works perfectly with no low points and never a dull moment. The recording quality is also a plus, fine attention to detail from each instrument goes to make this album a great listen. All the players hand in stellar performances, as one would expect. If you enjoy plenty of swing, melody and quirky music you'll definitely find it here.

A tag musically could be Elton Dean's Ninesense.... minus five musicians, naturally!    

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Two Sides of the Same Bill

Bill Frisell - Silent Comedy (Tzadic, 2013) ****

By Paul Acquaro

Though not his first solo guitar album, Silent Comedy seems to be a pretty radical departure for guitarist Bill Frisell. While some of his recent recordings like the subtle and sublime Beautiful Dreamers and Signs of Life featured mostly Americana influenced compositions, and the excellent All We Are Saying explored the music of John Lennon's, this is a much more experimental record.

Using just guitar and looping effects, Silent Comedy is an improvised event that eschews discernible themes and typical song development, and is comprised of evolving ideas that are manipulated at whim. The opener "Bagatelle" starts with some chunky comping that listeners may identify with the guitarist, but it soon fragments, and snippets of sound begin shifting and colliding unexpectedly. The following "John Goldfarb, Please Come Home", the longest track, begins with a barrage of noise, then ushers in a mix of textures and both organ-like and traditional electric guitar sounds. The short title track welcomes back some identifiably Frisellian guitar sounds, but unlike the composed pieces on other recordings that may use similar devices, the fragmentation and unexpected arrangements breathes with new life. 

Silent Comedy is a must listen for Frisell followers and fans of experimental guitar. Not an entry point to his prolific discography, but a rather welcome divergence.

JP Schlegelmilch -Throughout: The Music of Bill Frisell (SteepleChase LookOut, 2013) ***½

The connection between these two recordings is of course the music of Bill Frisell, but something interesting is happening in the translation. Schlegelmilch's approach to the Frisell's compositions -- by transforming the work to solo piano (an instrument which appears rather infrequently in Frisell's work) -- fills in some of the more minimalistic tendencies and angularities, giving the songs a whole new musical perspective. 

The title track "Throughout" begins appropriately with the lovely suspended melody left fully intact. Recorded by Frisell on his debut album "In-Line", Schlegelmilch's interpretation retains the original's spaciousness and clarity, but expands on its beguiling nature by filling in the open space with more lush voicings. Next up, "Rag," probes both the rag-time and classical implications of the song's catchy theme. Again, the pianist does not just regurgitate the original tune, rather he does some reconstruction and plays off the underlying structures found in the original pieces. "Deep Dead Blue," from Frisell's collaboration with Elvis Costello, is a moody piece that ends the album longingly.

Throughout: The Music of Bill Frisell separates the songs from the guitar, presenting them in a new light. The playing here reveals not just some new aspects to a set of songs but showcases Schlegelmilch as a thoughtful pianist with fresh and exciting ideas.

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Kris Davis - Capricorn Climber (Clean Feed, 2013) ***½

Reviewed by Joe

I remember reading Stef's enthusiastic review of Kris's Rye Eclipse. It's one of the great classics in the free-composed genre, an album more than worth checking out if you don't know it. Here she is again in large formation, something that really suits her great composing skills. Her group is made up of Mat Maneri, viola, Ingrid Laubrock, saxophone, Trevor Dunn, bass, Tom Rainey, drums and naturally Kris Davis, piano. It's a good combination that really gives her compositions a chance to breath and at the same time has a depth of sound. 

The opening notes of the album jump out at you making me think of King Crimson's David Cross pieces/period due to the violin's eerie presence. It's an atmosphere that pervades this album. Fine textures that develop within the group, 'spectral' would be a good term (if we were listening to contemporary classical music). The fine detail that the musicians put into the music is amazing not unlike a painting from the Flemish masters! "Too Tinkerbell"(tk1) the opening piece bravely settles into a group impro from the very start, yet underneath there is clearly a logic which only emerges after about 3 minutes. The wide open choice of notes that make up the theme give time a suspended feeling as if you're floating. This is a style that Kris Davis uses often, introducing notes into her pieces whilst the group improvises around her. A bass line that seems abstract suddenly becomes a melody, the drums seemingly flay around, yet they are a precise part of the melody to come, and so on.

It's nice to hear Ingrid Laubrock playing in a 'melodic' situation. Here she gets the chance to display her line playing to good advantage. Along with Matt Maneri's viola the two often complement each others improvisations to create some very delicate music. The rhythm section of Tom Rainey and Trevor Dunn give a fine performance also. The two players are able to give the impression of complete freedom whilst sneakily heading towards a common goal. Listening to these two players, combined with Kris Davis's piano you start to realise the complexity of some of the compositions. If a piece is rushed too much it would loose it's qualities and the rhythm section plays it just right. "Trevor's Luffa Complex"(tk3) is just such a piece. Starting with a bass solo the group gradually climbs on board until everything is in place, just in time before a strong theme explodes at the end.

Most of the pieces function in this way surprising the listener constantly. It's a style that makes for detailed listening over and over again. Details or structures that you hadn't grasped at first become clearer with each listen, as I already said it's like looking at a highly detailed painting - even Where's Wally for music! "Capricorn Climber"(tk4), "Pi is Irrational" (tk7) and "Dreamers in a Daze" (tk8) all have splendid improvised sections that build up over time, everyone is featured in there own fashion. At the same time the music is never clumsy or heavy handed.

If you enjoy listening to finely balanced music which can be both daring and beautiful then you'll probably find this a very rewarding album. If you don't know Kris Davis's work this may be as good a place to start as anywhere.

A sample of some of Kris's other albums (and collaborations) on the blog are:    
Gauci, Davis and Bisio
Rye Eclipse
Rainey, Laubrock and Davis
Paradoxical Frog
RIDD Quartet

Buy at Instantjazz.

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William Parker Quartet - Live In Wrotslove (ForTune, 2013) ***½

By Paolo Casertano

In the rankings (let’s say in the first twenty positions) of the concerts I’ve been attending in my life there is for sure the night, some years ago, when I had the honour and the luck to listen to a solo performance of William Parker in the Auditorium of Rome. It was during a really academic festival, full of prestigious names from the avant-garde Gotha. The audience, as usual in these kind of events, included a consistent number of bearded men with thick glasses and, in some cases, with a book on their knees waiting for the concert to start (you know, not even a minute of your precious time has to be stolen from the highest peaks of human knowledge).

After Parker had showed during an about one hour suite all the deep symbiosis he has with his instrument, the concert ended among delicate applauses and interesting sights (the one you try to show when you understand music, not just appreciate it). Parker should have noticed something for he reminded briefly that after all music and playing must have always something to do with enjoyment and amusement. Then he invited the audience to leave the concert hall while he was still playing in the background some really standard and pleasurable accompaniment phrases. Exactly as in a ballroom. Some of us followed the instruction and it was fun. Some others (guess who) stood still, gobsmacked and suspicious. Something is a concert or it is not and tertium non datur.

This album reminds me of that night. Information about it is hard to find on the Web if you don’t understand Polish (I had an intensive course just to write this review), but this almost 75 minutes long performance give us the chance to listen to the well-established Parker’s quartet featuring Hamid Drake on drums, Rob Brown on saxophone and Lewis Barnes on trumpet. It has been recorded in the Cultural Centre Agora of Wroclav during the 2012 Improvisation Festival. “Kalaparusha Dancing in the Edge of the Horizon” is the leading 47 minutes long composition and shows the smooth, classic and engaging interplay that these musicians can deploy. I like the often synchronic brass interaction, but my preferences go to the solo moments that we find in the second half of the track. First the astounding Parker solo after 25 minutes and then the long Drake’s exploit shortly after. Then again the extended duo between this more than legendary rhythmic session, using the brass just to remark some melodies once in while. Interchanging bowing and pizzicato is for Parker more or less the equivalent to breathing for conventional human beings. Audience can’t abstain from applauses.

The two shorter following episodes are enjoyable as well. “One for Horace” (I assume it is referred to Silver) starts really swinging and there’s more chances for the trumpet and the sax to climb scales and crank out catchy melodies. “Theme for Rondo Hatton” with its relentless and at the same time lazy bass line seems to arrive straight from another time. A time when you could have decided to dance during a jazz concert.

I understand that in the countless Parker’s discography maybe this will not be the one you remember, but it stays as a really pleasurable listening in any case.

My Polish course has not yet arrived to the “complete a web order” class but I assume the record can be purchased from the label.

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Trilok Gurtu: Spellbound (Moosicus, 2013) **

By Martin Schray

At the beginning of “A World of Sound“, a short film by the David Lynch Foundation about the late great David S. Ware, Ware says: “You know, I am not interested in chord changes … playing chord changes .. I don’t need that. I work on concepts, very subtle ideas.” You must see how he says the word “chord changes”, he pronounces it full of contempt - like “shit”. Trilok Gurtu’s album Spellbound is full of chord changes.

What the album might have been like can be heard at the short snippet recorded live by and with Don Cherry which opens the album – a 30-second-duo-improvisation with Cherry on trumpet and Gurtu on percussion. The rest is – as one of the reviewers on the team mentioned – fusion crap.

Spellbound is a homage to trumpeters (especially to Cherry) and it is moving through originals and pieces by Cherry, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis interpreted by various stars of the scene like Nils Petter Molvaer, Ibrahim Maalouf, Paolo Fresu, Ambrose Akinmusire and others.

But while their playing is sometimes even okay (e.g. Nils Petter Molvaer in the only halfway interesting track “Jack Johnson”) it is the rhythm section which is the problem. The pieces are often caked up with ugly synthesizer and keyboard sounds (and/or with hideous unison bass/trumpet runs and horrible vocal parts) and a hard-to-bear 1980s electric bass (especially bad in the title track). Everything is obvious, there is no subtlety, no concept or surprise. The worst tracks are “Cuckoo” in its cheesy Latin American style, Dizzy Gillepie’s Afro-Cuban classic “Manteca” and finally Don Cherry’s “Cosmic Roundabout/Brown Rice” which is spoilt again by the electric bass and the arrangement in general.

The problem of the album is that it is all about musical skills, there is no soul in any of the tracks (except the Cherry snippet, of course). John Lennon once called such music in a very pejorative voice “muzak”. The means (showing off what great musicians they are) are more important than the end. In an interview Gurtu said that the idea behind this CD was to present a message, he emphasized the spiritual aspect the music should have. I cannot see any message or spirituality here – just chord changes.

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KonstruKt feat. Peter Brötzmann: Eklisia Sunday (Not Two, 2013) ****

By Martin Schray

For an article in The Wire in December 2012 David Keenan asked Peter Brötzmann about his interest in world music. Brötzmann looked at him like he was “about to puke up his meat balls” and gagged. He said that he did not like the term at all, that he was not interested in the mixing-up of things and styles. What he was interested in were people, in musicians, in respect. So on the one hand world music in a pejorative sense tends to display obvious folkloristic influences, but on the other hand it can mean that people no matter where they come from can find a common ground, a common language beyond firmly established structures. Isn’t that what jazz is actually about?

Thus, it might be surprising that Brötzmann keeps on teaming up with “world musicians” like on his Yemen project “A Night in Sana’a” (ARM) or “China Live 2011” (Jazzhuis) but it is also logical for a man “who is full of contradictions” that he is looking for new possibilities in the jazz idiom.

For this album he has joined the Turkish free jazz collective KonstruKt again (something he has done before for their album Dolunay in 2008), which is Korhan Futaci (tenor & soprano saxophones), Umut Çağlar (electric guitar), Özün Usta (double bass, djembe, gong, bells) and Korhan Argüden (drums). But it is not only Brötzmann on tenor, alto and clarinet who is KonstruKt’s guest here, the band is also augmented by Hüseyin Ertunç (acoustic piano, küstüfon, gong), Doğan Doğusel (double bass, küstüfon) and Barlas Tan Özemek (electric guitar).

And while I have problems with Brötzmann’s Yemen and China albums this one is absolutely marvelous because Brötzmann adds his unique sound to a well-coordinated collective, him just being the icing on the cake. His phrases are perfectly integrated in the overall evolving group sound, where each piece unfolds light-footed because these guys are such great musicians. As an example serves “Track 3”, the longest piece on the album, with its conversations of percussion, bass and slide guitar, its almost spiritual character and its duel of three reeds. My favorite piece is the last one, “Track 4”. It starts with a piano/clarinet duo before all the others join in to soar in a frantic blow-out.

The album was recorded at Eklisia (an old chapel built in the 17th century) in Gümüşlük, a small village near Bodrum on the 15th of May, 2011, in front of a small but enthusiastic audience. The sound is sometimes a bit dry and reverberating but it does not affect the music in a negative way.

Listen to a sample of KonstruKt with Brötzmann at the Krakow Jazz Autumn in 2011:

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Verneri Pohjola & Black Motor - Rubidium (Tum, 2013) ****

By Paul Acquaro

Black Motor, a tough minded sax, bass and drum trio and trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, both from Finland, are new discoveries for me. Rubidium may mark their first release together, but without knowledge of their previous and separate works, all I can say is that it seems like a natural pairing.

Verneri Pohjola has worked with Helsinki based UMO Jazz Orchestra, the Orkestrova, as well as his own groups and Black Motor has been together for the better part of a decade with seven other albums under their belt. The group has been described in some press materials as playing "uncompromising free jazz in the spirit of their early idols, Albert Ayler, Peter Brötzmann and Rashied Ali, combined with more traditional forms of jazz expression."

While the music feels a bit less raw than the influences mentioned above, there is indeed a fine and free spirit of improvisation and exploration exuding from the recording. The mix of structure and freedom makes the quartet's music seamless and fresh. For example, the treatment that the group gives to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Song of India' has a more traditional head/solo set up, but Sami Sippola's sax often pushes the tunes to the edges of tonality without ever going over it. Pohjola's solo devolves into an exchange between bassist Ville Rauhala and drummer Simo Laihonen, whose support is essential: beautifully flowing bass lines and pulsating percussion allow the two horns great freedom.

The title track 'Rubidium' begins with unison melodic lines, subtly arresting harmony and features some fierce group improv. A real highlight though comes in the three minutes of 'Sax-o-Phun' where Sippola lets out his inner Brötzmann, breathes fire, and then segues into a climatic old-timey jazz fanfare. A powerful arrangement of Edward Vesala's 'Kynnyspuulla' provides a little gravity to the end of the album.

Verneri Pohjola & Black Motor have created an album that is powerful and subtle, and serious but playful. It's well worth a deep listen.

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