Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

So I've been redoing these openings basically every year, and recently that's settled into happening around this time. The reason I do it is simple: I prefer to present my thoughts here in chronological order — meaning that the most recent entry is at the end — & don't want this page to become too long, or for the opening remarks to become too dated. Of course, that leaves me looking for something new to say to introduce this project every year, and so I generally end up repeating much of what I said the previous year. (There's thus a whole series of intros, for anyone who likes intros!)

And when I started this project, I didn't have a clear idea of what I'd discuss, but it's become almost entirely reviews of album releases. In turn, that leads to various thoughts on criteria by which I might choose what to discuss: My original (& ongoing) motivation here has to do with social interactions, and so I'm generally interested in trios or somewhat larger groups. (Sometimes I say "two is company, but three brings the world..." — while in larger groups, it doesn't always seem that everyone's participation is important.) That said, particularly compared to earlier years, there've come to be far more albums being released that fit interests I've (already) expressed here, such that I'm also often needing to pick & choose.... I do come to feel a sense of guilt about this too, with worthwhile releases being neglected, such that I've also come to find myself noting more releases without really reviewing them.... I guess that fits with the sort of tangents-filled style I tend to develop here anyway.

I also try to drive myself to seek different sounds & projects, although of course I find many familiarities too.... So such an impulse can lead to discussing various exploratory releases, musicians searching for new sounds & interactive ideas, more so than necessarily coming to a finished product.... (That's part of improvising.) So I do try to interrogate usefulness as well, i.e. how the music might function in my life (or that of others...) in some way (including prospectively). This project is then part of a decolonizing project as well, and so a remark on the meaning of "jazz" seem warranted: As noted, I started in this space relatively unsure of how I would proceed, but jazz as a term is clearly grounded in specifically African-American musical creativity, while I now also hear its original "decolonizing" impetus proceed more broadly & into a post-jazz world.... (So sometimes I think I should change the title here, but sometimes I think it's perfect. Labeling is always fraught anyway, at least for anything worthwhile.)

Focusing more on recordings over the years (as I'm often more tired these days, and don't get out as much...) has also meant that almost everything I hear for this space is already mediated by electronics. It's part of the recording process. And then I've also come to rely almost exclusively on listening to music, i.e. without visuals: I confess I don't tend e.g. to watch most of the videos available. I'm increasingly sound oriented, and don't tend to read comments either until after I've heard something. (I mean, there're things to learn from watching, and it would probably answer some questions I have sometimes, but it just hasn't been much of a part of my process. I don't enjoy staring at screens. While I'm writing something like this, for instance, I regularly look away to collect my thoughts....) And yes, I feel self-conscious about so much first person writing too, but it does seem to be the nature of an intro....

Anyway, here are also the links I usually put here for some of my other (theoretical, knowledge project) writing — e.g. the big Postmodern Aesthetics (2019) & the still ongoing Decolonizing Tech serial (2020-) — as well as to my list of favorite albums in this space. (The latter is relatively short, ordered chronologically. Anything I mention here is generally worth hearing, though....) So hopefully some of this will continue to be useful....

Back in February, I reviewed Behenii I from a trio out of Barcelona: I was especially distracted at the time with the pending move of my residence (now in the past...), and so wrote a relatively brief review. Then I decided there was more to discuss, and while I sometimes write a second review under those circumstances, in this case I decided to await the presumed Behenii II.... Well, I still anticipate that second (implied) volume at some point, but two of the performers from Behenii — El Pricto (modular synthesizer) & Vasco Trilla (drums, percussion) — have already recorded (this past January) a new duo album together, e^iπ + 1 = 0. They also already named their duo General Ludd, and its first album (Snow Crash, from way back in 2020...) is rather different, with Pricto still playing saxophone (modified with electronics, plus additional programming at times...), but also involving various rock evocations, swells etc. And the rock influence is still audible at times for Behenii I (or at least its echoes...), there alternating with "smoother" sound-based articulations (as e.g. already explored by Trilla on the stark Implositions, a trio album with Matthias Müller released by Orbit 577 in Brooklyn, but recorded in Barcelona by Pricto & reviewed here back in June 2021...), together becoming transfigured or transformed through the program.... That shift or development continues strikingly for e^iπ + 1 = 0 (Euler's identity) then, with little invocation of genre — & coming soon after. Regarding the "rock" genre though, it's probably worth citing specifically "heavy metal" here: I'm not especially familiar with the intricacies of sub-genre history for these (late 20th century) popular music branches, but metal (per se) sounds feature prominently throughout (& e.g. for Trilla's solo work too, most recently The Bell Slept Long In Its Tower, released on Sweden's Thanatosis Produktion...), so the label can be rather literal. I might then compare Pricto & his work in general (including as a producer...) with Weasel Walter's: There's a lot of metal (if "no wave" in Walter's case...), a lot of speed, and generally a fascination with technology & darkness (i.e. the occult). (It might be fair to describe Walter's image as intentionally "too much" & similar comments may apply here. In Pricto's case, I've also started thinking of Venezuela & e.g. Gabriel García-Márquez....) Actually, I should immediately pair "darkness" with light here too, because Pricto (aka Andrés Rojas) explicitly evokes gnosticism at times. And so there's a broader "occult" sense at work as well here that music might be a means of tapping directly into power (or else feel like an expression of such power...). The new duo album even takes on the immanence-transcendence dual explicitly, both in its track titles & its conception of indistinction between the players. (I.e., what is self & what is non-self?) There's also — perhaps consequently — a sense of spatial exploration here, i.e. spacey (post-industrial...) in some also-broad sense, pace e.g. my recent review of One Third Of The Sun (in July), involving as well senses of smoothness (& perhaps even "metal" there too, specifically from Lebanese bassist Raed Yassin): Perhaps the conflation or intertwining of immanence & transcendence by Pricto et al. figures more an "inner space" then. (I'm indeed feeling my own associations around "space" being rewired of late....) As indeterminacy between players also already suggests, there's a broad sense of hybridity & extension forged here as well: There're various senses of anticipation, a little less mechanical intricacy (than the trio on Behenii I, with Don Malfon...), but often a sort of rumbling quasi-hocket, maybe a little funky or halting at times, but yielding a relatively focused sound stream (even, once again, a sense of floating...), seemingly even becoming plaintive at times (as the synth can sometimes sound like one or more horns...). The overall sound often suggests more mystery than aggression then. Yet, there's still the rush of metal, e.g. tinkling accents for a rumbling, flowing stream.... [Euler's identity] can thus be a little thin (or focused) in the typical ways that duo albums can be scarce on (e.g. rhythmic) inputs sometimes, but there're some great interactions too, and apparently developing along an arc forging a new & distinctive post-metal/industrial voice....

And then Udo Schindler continues to be one of the most prolific horn players in this space: I'd only just reviewed his Disturbed Terrains in July (& right before that, noted Ephemeral Locations with Paul Rogers, with whom Schindler will also be releasing a new duo album on Confront...), but do want to add some thoughts already on the new trio album Soundforge Laboratory, recorded live this April in Munich with Karina Erhard (flutes) & Noid (cello) (& with Schindler entirely on clarinets...). From my perspective, Soundforge Laboratory is a followup to Dense Bushes with Delicate Chirps (reviewed here in February this year) already with Erhard plus Irene Kepl on violin. The switch to the lower register cello alongside the woodwinds yields a much longer album then, roughly twice the length, various held tones & drones extending passages & figures temporally. (The lower register of the cello also involves fewer textural clashes than violin, i.e. both less "density" & a greater sense of space & resonance.) However, even without the "dense bushes," the "delicate chirps" do often remain, slowly shifting textures involving as well lines that maintain their continuity, sometimes at quite leisurely paces. The pregnant, quasi-lyrical opening immediately captivates me though, and there're then plenty of other fine, textural-line interactions throughout the album, which does nonetheless come off as exhaustingly long sometimes.... In any case, as noted around other recent Schindler releases, he often prefers duos, and in this case, already published (on Bandcamp in July) a duo album with Noid (aka Arnold Haberl of Vienna, b.1970), Sound Forge Dialogues (recorded the day before the trio): That album can seem rather tentative to start, but does tauten & intensify around similar dynamics, i.e. austere drones against more cheerful quasi-melodic snippets & extended continuities.... (Adding flute seems like a perfect plan, actually!) And then Erhard — who, pace my earlier comments regarding Eric Zwang Eriksson, is specifically one of Schindler's main trio partners — had already returned (after Dense Bushes with Delicate Chirps, recorded in September 2023) with Oscillating Soundscapes (recorded in October 2023) with Korhan Erel — the latter mentioned here already with Schindler for the trio Sound Energy Transformation (with Sebi Tramontana, as reviewed February 2018): Their prior trio album Surfiction (from 2022) does seem more coherent.... I hadn't noted Noid here previously, though. And then per Dense Bushes with Delicate Chirps, there's quite a bit of naturalism evoked by Soundforge Laboratory, but also more variety of open & flowing textures (maybe almost spacey, pace foregoing thoughts here...). I'm also particularly appreciating the place (i.e. register) of the cello: Schindler has been recording regularly with a series of double bassists (i.e. in his Low Tone Studies series, often involving low horns himself as well...), and then of course there was violin recently, but the tenor (middle) range for a string interaction appears to prompt some wonderful new textures & (sometimes inverting) vistas.... (The "sound installation" experience from Noid also seems to be a welcome factor, particularly in the resulting probing of acoustic space. An "indoor" vibe thus contrasts with e.g. the zoomimesis of other passages, sometimes even leading to some jazzier sequences....) So what are the political implications of a project such as this? For one, exploring new ways (including tunings) for interacting musically is, at least in principle, decolonizing. And then there's the feel for line that Schindler in particular brings to his playing, senses of continuity & movement, a kind of history (or historical enactment, I might say...) that quite simply never gets "stuck." (Time itself could even be said to dilate here instead....) In this music, there're consequently always paths forward — so many in fact, that they still need much (laboratory...) exploring!

The quartet of Tomeka Reid, Taylor Ho Bynum, Kyoko Kitamura & Joe Morris — now calling itself "Geometry" in production credits — is back with its fourth album for Relative Pitch, Geometry of Phenomena, recorded at Firehouse 12 in September 2023: All four albums have apparently been studio albums (& I don't know if the quartet ever performs live...), with the first, Geometry of Caves (recorded back in December 2016) immediately catching my attention (pace a June 2018 review). Besides the instrumentalists, who've all already been leaders in their fields (& Morris across multiple instruments these days, but he's been exclusively on guitar for Geometry...), a defining factor in my appreciation has certainly been Kitamura's vocalizing (& singing per se...), continuing with much of the style she's developed with Anthony Braxton (especially as documented on 12 Duets (DCWM) 2012...), but I've also appreciated e.g. how Ho Bynum has been able to use cornet (along with flugelhorn here) to enhance background textures too. (Those two are sometimes intertwined on Geometry of Phenomena, producing e.g. slow composite "screams" that can be highly affective....) And then Morris seems often to engage in these sorts of ongoing quick string duo exchanges, as he does here with Reid, and had e.g. with Brad Barrett on Geologic Time — also featuring Ho Bynum, as it happens. (And I don't know the full performance history of Ho Bynum with Morris, but e.g. I'd reviewed them together with Next in July 2011. Or it might be more accurate to say that I briefly discussed my confusion around their idioms....) The latter album, recorded four months prior, did also just make a tremendous impression (at least on me), so it feels strange to be reviewing (& enthusiastically!) another album with the two of them so soon after (& with Reid on cello in a somewhat similar role...), but of course there are differences: Barrett is more centered on Geologic Time (with both of these albums being well over an hour...), with a technical string praxis oriented more around slack & bent tones, a sort of "outdoorsy" ease perhaps, sometimes figured in windswept passages.... But then Geometry is more quick & even fractured (or brittle?) in its exchange of figures — & of course involves voice — but with various prior influences sounding through as well, including indeed (especially from Ho Bynum) those sorts of Western landscapes.... (Ho Bynum has been very much expanding his "background" articulation techniques across these interactions with Morris....) Collective timbres continue to be explored & expanded too, including e.g. briefly sounding like a piano to open the album, senses of noise, senses of austerity too (& perhaps even some of that new age "floating" vibe that I've been mentioning...). And as these remarks might already have suggested, I've particularly enjoyed Geometry of Phenomena as well, making for a strong impression right from the beginning: It greatly extends Geometry of Caves (which did make a big impression too...), and overcomes what I might call some of the limits of the intervening (yet worth hearing) Geometry of Distance (reviewed December 2019) & Geometry of Trees (already a post-pandemic recording, reviewed here May 2022), both of which can seem a little more focused around a member of the quartet. The release of Geometry of Phenomena does reaffirm the quartet's "acceptance of communal responsibility and creation" in words however, and seemingly does so more in sound too. (So perhaps I should go on to remark explicitly on my habit of including a single musician's name along with albums on my "favorites" list: It's an old-fashioned practice, but I've felt as though the alternative — i.e. not including anyone's name — is simply "less" for the reader. Or I guess I could list everyone and have a bulky list.... And often it's clear that if there's to be one name, which one it should be, but that wasn't the case for the first Geometry, and isn't the case here — whereas for the second and third albums, I'd've listed Ho Bynum & Kitamura respectively. And so here I've defaulted to Morris as the senior participant... although Reid is actually listed first elsewhere for both. And even now, I'm finding Reid's quasi-ubiquitous contribution on Geometry of Phenomena to be impossible to summarize, so maybe that's a sign of real leadership....) And then whereas this could be figured as a vocal album in general — & so e.g. compared to recent favorites L'âge de l'oreille & Rune Kitchen (& maybe even to Light air still gets dark in some more quiet & "throttled" sections...) — there're various points where the instrumental trio does drive the music as well. Perhaps it's fair to observe then that there's simply more, at this point anyway, to this ongoing quartet than there is to even some other favorite trio albums... as after all, there're four trios within every quartet — albeit rarely explored simultaneously. (And perhaps I should remark too on the general phenomenon of reviewing the same ensemble in subsequent albums: There're fewer opportunities to do so in this space than might be anticipated, but of course it's always tempting to review a followup album with reference only to the ensemble's own output — i.e. a strong urge to compare them to themselves. There's thus a more insular quality to this sort of discussion, elaborations of group style almost seemingly needing to be matched by elaborations of descriptive language....) And then this is also Geometry's first high-def recording — with more of an "electric" cover, and with Morris also using some effects at times, but this isn't really an electroacoustic album, at least not in a relative sense.... There's perhaps more of a sense of mystery cultivated for this fourth outing, though (& there'd always been senses of players hiding behind others at times...), spatial at times as well, flowing, figuring narrativity (presumably as glimpsed through the ongoing track titles... but also via playing with senses of tempo) too, and then ending abruptly.

English physicist turned saxophonist John Butcher is also back with three new albums. After releasing a series of LPs on Ni Vu Ni Connu from the November 2019 John Butcher Festival at Ausland (as reviewed here in February 2022), there's now the quartet Unlockings (recorded in London in April 2022). So particularly given the release history, this new quartet album appears with some fanfare, including similar comments as those around Fluid Fixations (recorded in 2021 & reviewed this April) regarding composition & choosing of collaborators. Unlockings is a smaller ensemble, however, and seemingly more preliminary in its expressions: Joining Butcher are Angharad Davies, Mark Sanders & Pat Thomas — all from Fluid Fixations (as were also e.g. John Edwards & Ståle Liavik Solberg, to appear again below...) — with Davies already appearing in various similar contexts with Butcher (e.g. Nodosus, reviewed April 2022...), Thomas appearing quite often lately, and then Sanders more often in "jazzier" settings. (I can still pick out e.g. some of the latter's characteristic hand drums in a few passages, but percussion here is usually much more about rubbed metal & smooth articulations....) For Davies & Thomas, collaborating with Butcher also goes back to Common Objects — whose quartet release Whitewashed with Lines (reviewed here June 2015) presents something of a similar ensemble interaction (albeit with harp instead of drums) — which only became a quartet for its second release by adding Davies, then later Thomas as well for the sextet (now doubling both violin & electronics...) Skullmarks (reviewed February 2019). So Unlockings does seem like a new project, i.e. taking some of Butcher's previous interactions & seeking to pare them down & intensify them, but does also take up prior collaborations. Consequently it can be austere, not that the individual sounds (e.g. high twittering...) can't be wild, but they're generally framed within a quiet tapestry, spaced & presented in a measured approach, i.e. cultivating a sense of timbral dimensionality & mapping. (And as it happens, this is exactly the image I summoned for Ernesto Rodrigues's Coluro, reviewed July 2018: I talked there of "spanning" space with "independent" vectors of timbre....) In Butcher's case though, this comes off as more about psychoacoustic space, i.e. not simply as physical, but around human response & personalities as well. (There's also a simultaneous release of a series of duos with Butcher on Ni Vu Ni Connu, Lower Marsh, recorded on the same day with the same musicians, plus a couple of duos with Edwards recorded already that February. Perhaps Edwards was desired for Unlockings too then? The bass register ends up being handled more by drums & sometimes electronics....) There thus seems also to be quite a bit of coordination already existing within this quartet, and even a sense of taking turns. Rarely is the sound very dense, not a lot of simultaneity (as each figure is usually given/establishing space, i.e. as basically a subset of the larger "sonic dimensionality" on Fluid Fixations...), but there's often a sense of anticipation, pace e.g. a variety of calls at odd angles. Sometimes the vibe is a sort of spacey noir. There's thus also a sort of overall (preexisting?) calm, but not much calming per se.... Shall we expect more in this direction? Unlockings seems to be a (new?) beginning.

And then the new trio albums, The Glass Changes Shape (recorded in Köln in September 2023, released by Relative Pitch) & Volatile Object (recorded in London in January 2023, released by Trost) seem to be less about "striving" specifically in the broad "new music" arena, and more about hearkening to classic free jazz albums, or rather forging another potent new mix.... The latter reprises the trio — with Thomas (now on jazzy piano to open the album, but back on spacey electric keyboards for the second half...) & Solberg from Fictional Souvenirs (reviewed here May 2019), tricky rhythms & agitations, then becoming more atmospheric & mysterious.... (And do note that I'd cited Fictional Souvenirs & Last Dream of the Morning — the latter being Butcher's trio with Sanders & Edwards — in the same sentence for my April review of Fluid Fixations: As it happens, Last Dream of the Morning's second album — featuring e.g. primitivism around hand drums — Crucial Anatomy, was also released by Trost, in 2020....) And then the former presents likewise the second album by a trio around Butcher, also more hybrid (& not represented in these earlier productions...), with guitarist Florian Stoffner & Chris Corsano joining Butcher again to reprise their (recorded in May 2022, released in 2023) Hat Hut album, Braids (& with this new album not officially releasing until October...): Jazzier passages alternate with smoother/slower passages, again cultivating a sort of noir vibe or even a nocturne style at times, again senses of dimensionality & varying material, including into some electric (e.g. bent tone) weirdness, a kind of "comings & goings" style at times too, gathering momentum — but still proceeding more via contrast & alternation, including some noisier passages (including some rather jazzy sax), more traditional drumming, etc. (Stoffner had actually appeared here most recently with Na Parede, from quartet The Wall, reviewed January this year as a subscriber album from Catalytic Sound.... And I haven't heard as much from Corsano lately, although he's been prolific in the past, most recently reviewing here his duo with Christine Abdelnour, Quand fond la neige, où va le blanc?, also from Relative Pitch, back in May 2019....) A potentially worthwhile comparison here with another Butcher trio album then concerns Induction (recorded in June 2019, and included in the first Butcher series from Ni Vu Ni Connu...), generally more transfigured (i.e. no jazzy alternations...) around shimmering metal & extended senses of animation, long calls & elemental continuities... so almost outdoorsy again. And those sorts of "acoustics" explorations do figure a lot of my ongoing interest in Butcher & his work, but some jazzier & more angular articulations — as with these recent trios — can have an appeal of their own. Perhaps (versus the more exploratory Unlockings...) they can still even be heard as protest music. (And then I guess I should remark that it can be challenging to get a picture of what Butcher is doing when releases appear years later & out of order: The relatively hybrid The Glass Changes Shape is the most recently recorded album from this double entry....)

As I do keep referring to larger productions this week anyway, I also want to discuss the new Marconi's Drift from soprano sax legend Evan Parker's "Trance Map+" project, here called Transatlantic Trance Map. Beyond the size of the ensemble (a 13tet overall), Marconi's Drift is then also an exploration of the trend for distance recording, with Parker & six other musicians in Faversham, UK while six different musicians were at Roulette in Brooklyn, "together" via software on one date in December 2022. (Another recent example of this distance recording trend, again coming soon from Relative Pitch pace the previous two entries, is the duo album Band Width from Jon Rose & Mark Dresser....) Transatlantic Trance Map thus continues Parker's Trance Map duo project with Matthew Wright (turntable, live sampling & processing) — originally with their Trance Map duo album (released in 2011 on Psi) & with a new duo album supposedly forthcoming also from Relative Pitch, per the project page for Marconi's Drift... — documenting the largest such ensemble yet: After the original duo album (which I didn't notice at the time...), they released two Trance Map+ albums, the quintet (made explicitly for falling asleep...) Crepuscule in Nickelsdorf on Intakt (as reviewed here August 2019) & the trio Grounded Abstraction on FMR (reviewed October 2022), although their accompanying discussion here does state that they've been engaging in "streamed and networked performances" since 2020 (with the pandemic surely having played a major role...). So, Marconi's Drift — released on the False Walls label, originally (twenty-some years ago...) in Chicago, but relaunched in 2021 from the UK, and already having released a duo album with Parker & electronics artist Henry Dagg in 2022, Then Through Now... — documents a new (or at least new to me...) step in complexity for this project. But the Trance Map+ project is also seemingly converging with Parker's longtime Electro Acoustic Ensemble: The latter's most recent album, Warszawa 2019 (a 10tet, released after a gap of nine years...) does already include Wright (although Trance Map has not included Paul Lytton, a defining participant of the Electro Acoustic Ensemble...) as well as e.g. prominent trumpet & piano. But whereas the Electro Acoustic Ensemble is more live-processed, Marconi's Drift involved extensive post-production from Wright. (Parker states that the post-production brings out aspects of the sound that were not audible on the live date.) There're also other collaborators to note (all of whom were already known or well-known): Pat Thomas (so prolific lately, albeit often in jazzier settings than I typically review...) is on live electronics in the UK, joined by Peter Evans on trumpet, Robert Jarvis (from Grounded Abstraction) on trombone, Hannah Marshall on cello (also from e.g. Fluid Fixations...) & Alex Ward (clarinet). On the US side, Mat Maneri & Craig Taborn are back already from (the unrelated) Lifetime Rebel from Joëlle Léandre (just reviewed here this July...), plus Ned Rothenberg on woodwinds (paralleling Parker, who's in shadow behind Rothenberg for the cover...) & Sylvie Courvoisier (piano & keyboard), and then more live electronics from Ikue Mori & Sam Pluta. So how much of this is really audible? I guess that's what the post-production is about, but whereas Parker's characteristic swirling/circular soprano features in the single track program both early & late (followed by a "mysterious" metallic/industrial/echoing coda...), in the long middle sections there're a wide variety of timbral combos & interactions, generally less coherent (than Warszawa 2019...), i.e. with a lot of skulking (waiting...) through the first half, then more into hocketing passagework for the second (announced with a "traffic" swell/vibe...), eventually into a sort of horn choir in longer tones, back then to Parker as noted.... So I'd say the first half lacks some gravity, with players obviously trying to get their bearings (& a sort of "distant radio transmissions" vibe maintaining, for obvious reasons...), but I expect it was a good learning experience as well. Is this sort of production really going to be a trend? I have the feeling that this might be how Parker (& others?) are doing larger groups in the future.... (This project does seem to be Parker's creative focus these days.) And as noted in the new intro above, I don't generally favor larger groups, but there's actually plenty to hear in this investigation (e.g. various details that arise...), including around what does seem to be a broadly emerging trend toward more (technologically) distributed playing (& in turn toward more post-production...?).

[ And the new Trance Map duo album, Horizons Held Close, has appeared — indeed from Relative Pitch (pre-release already on Bandcamp...) — before I've even managed to write the next entry here — as has a quadruple album of Parker solo performances, also from False Walls, The Heraclitean Two-Step, etc.! And the former can suggest considerable continuity with the latter, in fact, particularly since Parker plays with acoustic delays & resonance in his solo work: The duo interactions on Horizons Held Close do seem to reflect an almost generic interfacing of Parker's more intimate solo explorations with the outside world, and so in turn with broader ensembles (& hence wider ideas...) via the Trance Map+ project. - 10/04/24 ]

The (as yet) unnamed trio of Marcello Magliocchi (drums & percussion), Adrian Northover (soprano sax) & Bruno Gussoni (flutes) recorded their first album The Sea Of Frogs back in 2019 (i.e. before the pandemic, reviewed here January 2020...), and now return with at least their fourth release, Scant (recorded across two days in studio in Monteggiori, Italy this past July). I'd reviewed their third album (assuming I've noticed them all...) The House On The Hill in November 2023, that release from London's Shrike Records, but now want to go on to note the increasingly intricate collective interaction on Scant — again with a variety of shorter, titled tracks. As the album title suggests, there's also an air of minimalism to the interaction, but it's not especially minimal (except perhaps as concerns dynamics...), with a variety of (often metallic) percussion chiming subtly or (e.g. skins) shaping proceedings alongside winds that are articulating relatively longer tones, i.e. exploring layered resonances, but also developing quasi-melodic figurations. (A natural comparison is then with ongoing spectral explorations from Udo Schindler, e.g. Soundforge Laboratory from last month, also a trio with reed & flute....) There's generally a quiet quality to Scant then (& perhaps the recording, self-released on Magliocchi's Bandcamp, would benefit from more presence...), but involving a sophisticated (& relatively assertive) sense of material that might also suggest a reduction from more classic jazz quintets (or the not quite "classic" — but with Northover & Magliocchi, plus Neil Metcalfe on flute — Runcible Quintet, e.g. per Four, also being an entirely pre-pandemic series...): I'd noted of Runcible (back in the first review, May 2017) how Magliocchi served as the focal point for two interlocking trios, and similarly here, we have basically two simultaneous horn duos — with the horns also buoying each other in turn via intertwining resonances. So there can be a sense of primitivism overall, and of course this is a world without strings or chordal instruments..., including e.g. some twittering zoomimesis (& bent tones across the ensemble...), but also close "acoustic" attention, breathy at times, again becoming quasi-melodic between the winds.... (Tracks tend to build, so the track breaks return to a quieter foundation for a restart. A lively quality continues to emerge....) And then to update connections, Northover had only just appeared again here with Salute To The Rabid Raspberry (reviewed in July, only a few days before Scant was recorded...), while I still don't know Gussoni from anywhere else.... Meanwhile Magliocchi released recently a followup to his Leocantor Trio album from earlier this year (from FMR) — adding church organ to his duo with violinist Matthias Boss from Schnellissimo, the latter as reviewed here January 2023... — adding a second organist for the self-released Sacre de l'été (recorded this August): There're increasingly distinctive & creative textures (at times) from that group, although I wouldn't say that their albums are (as yet) especially coherent overall.... (And besides Boss, Magliocchi has made multiple albums with violinist Stefania Ladisa as well, including e.g. the 2023 FMR release Dall'Introspezione all'Interazione in trio with Northover.... So combos with violin must appeal to him.) However, it's the trio with Northover & Gussoni, now with Scant, that seems to be exploring especially fertile territory — even if its releases remain relatively obscure.

Another ongoing formation is then the "trombone trio" from Der Dritte Stand (reviewed here May 2022): Matthias Müller, Matthias Bauer & Rudi Fischerlehner are back with Spontaneous Live Series 015 (from Dragon Social Club's Spontaneous Live Series from Poznan, Poland...), recorded October 2023: The single track is a little shorter than their previous multi-track album (released by Not Applicable), while generally maintaining a degree of continuity, i.e. moving through some more minimalist textures, but also involving some deep growling & furious spinning intensity at times — ending in rousing applause. And I'd previously noted Der Dritte Stand for its exploration of a basic "free jazz" configuration, which is of course not new to them (pace e.g. BassDrumBone, which recently released its 11th album, Afternoon...), and so also involves a little more "inside" than typical here.... (For more of an "outside" tapestry then, let me also mention the new Shift #1, an EP from Ictus recorded in October 2022 and featuring US trombone master Steve Swell with electric guitarist Elliott Sharp & percussionist Andrea Centazzo: The result is an almost opposite sort of twittering, metallic jungle — almost orchestral via electronics.) There's certainly a sense of e.g. frustration & release here (sometimes itself rhetorical...), but also sometimes more atmospheric explorations around (sometimes more procedural) continuity, generating some unique textural passages.... So I did want to note this followup from Der Dritte Stand, including so as to note the label (which spun off from the more established, but quiet lately, Multikulti Project...), which did release another album with Fischerlehner at the same time too (as many of their releases seem to be in pairs...), Spontaneous Live Series 014 with Marta Warelis & Florian Stoffner: Both are highly prolific lately as well, but Stoffner in particular seems suddenly to be "everywhere," including a new trio album on Wide Ear, Die Exorzistin with Rudi Mahall & Michael Griener, i.e. right on the heels of The Glass Changes Shape (as reviewed here only last month...). And then Müller continues to appear in more places too, (here) most recently with John Butcher's Fluid Fixations ensemble (as reviewed in April), while Bauer was back with the next Dis/con/sent quartet album, München (as reviewed here December 2023), not long after Fischerlehner with "guitar trio" Puna last November.... In any case, even if it made less impression than the original release, I appreciated hearing the live sequel from Der Dritte Stand: The entire Spontaneous Live Series catalog has appeal....

Relatively early in this project, I encountered Jan Klare's quartet "1000" & reviewed their third album Shoe in May 2012. (They're thus a longer running band than the two trios with albums just reviewed above....) The name of the group refers to a millennium of musical repertory, selections from which were arranged by Klare for jazz treatments, and I did enjoy the resulting polyphony-rich approach (for obvious reasons, per some of the "early music" influences...). 1000 also came to incorporate inspirations from traditional world music, but was more compositions-based than I ended up prioritizing here (& also with more originals, versus continuing to draw straight from older repertory...), and so I did lose track of them: It turns out that there's e.g. a sextet version "2000" (with Steve Swell & cellist Elisabeth Coudoux, the latter most recently appearing here with Pascal Niggenkemper's Beat the odds, in an April 2023 review...) that released Plant in 2019, and then a post-pandemic album Eintausend spielt OCJ (recorded in 2021) that returned to a quartet (again with Bart Maris, Wilbert de Joode & Michael Vatcher) but now playing more intricate "contemporary jazz orchestra" repertory. And both trends continue with the new Unrepeatable (recorded in September 2022 & released this month on Umland Records) from related quintet "3000," i.e. with Klare on alto sax & flute & trombonist Swell returning, the music now apparently entirely improvised: The two tracks were recorded across two different sessions on the same date, and do feature slower sections, e.g. gatherings of forces or more intimate reductions, but also (still) various wonderfully polyphonic passages between the horns (with the double brass & flute combo being especially appealing...) across what is basically a "free jazz" sort of ensemble dynamic. The different senses of timing (& sometimes longer articulations...) between the lines are especially sophisticated too (perhaps almost recalling an older, New Orleans-esque revelry at times...), often lending the feel of open textures, i.e. despite the intertwining lines & sometimes boisterous activity. (The slower sections even seem in hindsight to have been functional, as I'm ultimately left listening to my own thoughts once the music subsides....) And then I haven't heard much from most members of 1000 in the intervening years, although de Joode is an exception, being e.g. a fixture with Achim Kaufmann & Frank Gratkowski & their augmented bands... (first being named here only with that trio's own fourth album, Geäder, in a January 2015 review...) — while Swell sometimes seems to specialize in being an "addition" to existing bands (e.g. already with the Carlo Costa Quartet & Sediment, per a March 2015 review...) & in fact had just been noted here (tangentially) in the previous entry with Shift #1! In any case, the many years of interactions, involving a wide range of material (with references coming to be much less explicit too...), have obviously given the core quartet a strong foundation for collective improvising, leading to the long form (& often textural, flowing...) tapestries of Unrepeatable.

The "jazz" clarinet trio (i.e. with bass & drums) continues to be an appealing format for me — pace e.g. a little survey in the review of Jason Stein's Volumes & Surfaces (from February 2022) — and so I want to turn now to Hazard Calls, recorded in Oxford (UK) in April 2024. Hazard Calls is a rather long album, more than an hour, and seems to present something of a dissertation (if you will...) from Alex Ward (entirely on clarinet here...) alongside Dominic Lash & Mark Sanders. And I'd first encountered Ward on clarinet, but lately heard him more often on electric guitar (or perhaps alternating...), often involving his own compositions (often in a sort of post-jazz/rock style...) — with one exception being his recent participation on Evan Parker's Marconi's Drift (as reviewed here last month), where he's only listed on clarinet. I guess I have to say then that I haven't gotten as much from Ward's guitar work, and so he'd been sliding off my radar.... So back to my earlier impressions here, I first reviewed (briefly in April 2013, prompted by DMG) Ward on Compost (& then again more extensively in June 2015...), a trio album with Benedict Taylor & Daniel Thompson — who soon released another trio album with another clarinetist, Tom Jackson, Hunt at the Brook (also reviewed here June 2015). That parallel then continues for me here, i.e. comparing Jackson's subsequent trio album Dandelion (with guitar instead of bass, and starting to seem a little older, as recorded in 2021...): The latter likewise involves smoother, more resonance-shifting passages together with more animated counterpoint, etc. Indeed the range of inspirations, the general palettes as well, can sound similar. (Pace the earlier horn trio survey already noted, one of the sax trios in a subsequent survey around Jack Wright's Yaw, following on the heels of a reprise of bassist Damon Smith with another clarinet trio, The Cold Arrow as both reviewed here December 2023, actually involved Lash too, i.e. Here and How with John Butcher, reviewed July 2023.... Meanwhile, Sanders last appeared in this space with Butcher too, on Unlockings, reviewed last month, following Fluid Fixations from April....) Lash in particular has been a regular partner for Ward — e.g. releasing Lash / Sinton / Ward on Scatter Archive the same day as Hazard Calls appeared on Shrike Records, the former a generally arrhythmic & exploratory album... — & that experience sounds through on Hazard Calls as well: Sanders can rarely be said to initiate or instigate, more accenting & articulating the duo, although all do become more lively at times.... The result comes to include some stark landscapes, senses of space & shifting resonances, but also articulate phrasings ranging then more into the spectral, e.g. zoomimetically twittering or flickering sometimes into & out of silence.... Moods vary but are generally restrained & conversational — or else quiet & impersonal & outdoors. A sense of depth, even gravity, does also develop, and soon, into an often spacious sense of flow.... So there's almost an ambient sense, differing senses of focus (or perspective) at times, but also feelings of (human) anticipation or even nostalgia (especially around the outdoor evocations, pace Hunt at the Brook again, and perhaps even per the title here...). A sort of naturalism thus presents on Hazard Calls, not only with the requisite human-rhetorical component (lingering in the background... sometimes more animated, to the fore), but in particular evoking a sort of quasi-industrial contraption via various rattlings & resonances, a new (or antique?) kind of outdoor technology exploration perhaps... a kind of anti-soteriology (if I may...), to yield (to) an eventual melancholy landscape, the quiet ending then seeming to come almost as a (rhetorical) thud (confirming a subdued realism).

Turning next to a different sort of horn trio, Ernesto Rodrigues has been cultivating reed (mostly...) & two strings combos, particularly viola & cello, allowing for more middle texture interplay & less thinking in terms of a "rhythm team" (& generally absent drums). Although various rhythmic agitation & syncopation is still possible, the result is perhaps more in the realm of chamber music than it is free jazz. Yet, this sort of trio is capacious as well — particularly in terms of harmonic interplay — & continues to be cultivated extensively by Rodrigues, with a wide variety of both frequent & infrequent collaborators (including non-horn players, in sometimes-different dynamics...). And now such a trio, with two of his most frequent musical partners, son Guilherme & Nuno Torres (alto sax), has released an extended concert tour program, Whispers in the Moonlight - In seven movements, recorded in November 2022 across three (non-consecutive) dates in Berlin, Köln & Munich. So the release is already unusual for Rodrigues & Creative Sources, packaging three different concerts into one (double, although it could be triple, at well over two hours total...) album, but due also to its deferred release. I wasn't aware of these concert recordings until last week, but they actually illuminate an already-exciting chronology for this trio: To open November 2022, the Rodrigueses & Torres recorded the quintet album (with Alexander von Schlippenbach) Conundrum (belatedly reviewed here in October 2023, just over a year ago...), followed the next day by another (more diffuse) quintet album, Letters to Milena as already noted in that earlier review. Next was the Berlin concert (the longest...) for Whispers in the Moonlight, followed (on the fourth consecutive day) by the quartet album (with guitarist Dirk Serries) Brecht (as noted here in a January 2023 entry...). A few days later was the second trio concert in Cologne (for which I don't know an obvious pairing...), including e.g. an extended "traffic" passage (mostly absent from this release otherwise...). And then the München concert was actually preceded (for two consecutive days, beginning the day after the Köln concert) by recording the double album Conspiratorial and fulminate things happen with Udo Schindler (as reviewed here in May 2023): The latter in particular — & its second day in particular, live & much less preliminary... — belongs to the same (or similar) story here, i.e. Rodrigues' development (as well) of quartet formations for two horns & two strings.... (The present double/triple album is certainly one of the most sophisticated of the trio releases, while my touchstone for the quartets has been the more human-rhetorical 2016 classic New Dynamics, already including Torres....) Moreover, the specific notion of "stories" is better suited to Whispers in the Moonlight itself — & I don't know that its "In seven movements" subtitle really means much, as I would suggest listening to the three concerts (totaling seven tracks) individually — whereas Conspiratorial and fulminate things happen can be almost impossibly intricate, sometimes exhausting, more urban at times (but with a quieter or even nocturnal feel sometimes too...), always something new coming along very soon.... Whispers in the Moonlight does have its more detailed passagework at times too then, but there's more a sense of affective sweep... of easing & openness. And of course, these three musicians have performed together often... although this is their first trio release (pace what I see in the massive Rodrigues discography). Another obvious comparison though is Setúbal (reviewed here May 2020) with Miguel Mira as cellist (but already with Ernesto Rodrigues & Torres...), another sort of (more singularly...) gestural album, also affectively potent, but a kind of braided one-d timbral wave, i.e. focusing on overall continuity.... Whispers in the Moonlight does also involve a strong affective sweep then, as noted, but with more sense of variety (& e.g. counterpoint...) along the way: There's a richness of detail — a telling of stories that seems to fit the featured concert setting... — that both animates & enriches the overall flow. (And then Torres was apparently the choice for this tour for his more extrovert horn style, relative to other regular Rodrigues collaborators anyway, building again from a variety of past work together: I actually most recently mentioned Torres here with quartet album Synopsis, as part of a review of Cobra — on which he does not appear — from June this year, also noting his more recent trio album Impulses and Signals with Rodrigues & Carlos Santos doing live processing.... And along with having joined his father again for this consequential 2022 tour, Guilherme Rodrigues continues to embark on more projects without Ernesto, e.g. quartet album Fields as reviewed here this past March, and more recently e.g. the more enigmatic — & also electroacoustic — Materials and Structures No1 with Ulf Mengersen & Wolfgang Seidel....) And then this is certainly not the first trio album of this sort from the Rodrigueses, e.g. Sans oublier les arbres (reviewed here in May 2022) being the first such release with Bruno Parrinha.... (And not long after this 2022 tour, the duo would go on to record e.g. the trio L'âge de l'oreille & quintet Dérive together as well, continuing to involve varying musicians for each....) These trio albums are all different though, and Whispers in the Moonlight has its own distinctive qualities: Beyond a generally calming affective vibe (post-Cage, perhaps...) & senses of easing — to which one might compare e.g. the more overt naturalism of Rodrigues' Suspensão series (& e.g. its shadings of light, dating back to at least 2010...) for larger ensemble (e.g. chamber octet), so less pared & direct... — there's a sense of shared vocabulary, almost the "clichés" of many a Rodrigues performance, here actually presented more starkly in some ways (wonderfully articulately, one could say...), weaving a rich tapestry, again moving well beyond senses of (contrapuntal) abstraction into a clear projection of style, an often soft & receptive style (albeit colored by subtle noise at times...), an ecological style I might say.... This is thus both flowing & conscious music, bursting with (not overpowering, but never in stasis...) momentum, that I find both engaging & helpful in easing my own mind — particularly in the evening & via its invocation of night (or dusk) colors & moods (even including a bit of the sultry or noir at times...): I've tried listening in the morning, out of curiosity, but this is evening music (& do note that e.g. Indian classical music has long presented clear ideas on times of day for different music, something that I sometimes consider too...), indeed continuing the theme of various nocturne-style albums & passages from Rodrigues (as only belatedly noted here explicitly, but also as becoming increasingly clear...). Whispers in the Moonlight fuses that orientation with his frequent naturalism, forged here via (quasi-jazzy, perhaps...) concert setting, highlighting the human element, i.e. affectivity & story....

And now Daniel Thompson returns with a new acoustic trio album, This is a tree — alongside Kay Grant (voice) & Ian McLachlan (trombone & other instruments), both new to me — recorded in studio in London this past May. The open & often delicate textures of the trio also figure a sort of naturalism, not atypical for Thompson, welding more extended (& subtle) vocal figurations into (& out of...) the trombone flow (perhaps almost opposite e.g. to the electronic & aggressive Split Jaw from the Beam Splitter duo, as reviewed here March 2023...), as articulated by varied, ringing guitar chords — the latter as already paired with Grant for the duo release Quite pleased to be playing under a birdcage, that doesn't have a bird in it.... And the recent date for This is a tree is notable for Thompson as well, as it seems since starting Empty Birdcage — with the significant duo release T'other (with violist Benedict Taylor), recorded in 2019 & reviewed here November 2020 — he's recorded less new material, often returning to (pre-pandemic) 2019 for releases. Indeed the earlier (& more preliminary...) duo with Grant had its first half recorded in 2019 (& second in 2021...), while e.g. his most recent release there (Still dancing from last year, a trio with Caroline Kraabel & dancer Max Reed...) was still recorded in 2019, as was e.g. Hunt at the Brook Again & with Neil Metcalfe (released elsewhere last year). I did review the big & boisterous quintet with frequent collaborators, It used to be an elephant (recorded in 2022), in May 2023, however, so there's been some newer activity, rather open-ended in that case.... (The other release on Empty Birdcage this year was from Marcello Magliocchi & Adrian Northover — both collaborators with Thompson from Runcible — with Time Textures, a 2022 duo recording noted here already in July: That's an earlier recording than e.g. their Scant trio, as reviewed here last month — as is their more recently released quartet album with another Runcible partner, John Edwards, Gust also recorded in London in May of this year....) And then apparently Grant is originally from New York, but moved to England decades ago (pace e.g. a 2011 duo album with Alex Ward on Emanem...), engaging in a variety of subtle articulations & breathy tones for This is a tree, generally slow-moving (sometimes almost haunting...) textures balanced against the constantly changing & tactile guitar fingerings (& sometimes e.g. twitterings of the vaguely credited "other instruments..."), generally a study in nuance, as titled after a series of four types of trees.... (Perhaps another relevant comparison from Thompson's past is then with Xoo, a trio album also with Adrian Northover, and actually an even quieter & seemingly more tentative album, reviewed here January 2020: Shifting toward a more direct sense of expression fits the general trend in this space....) So collective sounds & articulations come to hang resonantly in the air on This is a tree, briefly, and then (along with their senses of tension & anticipation...) vanish, not unlike a sudden clearing in the woods.

Then it's Swiss cellist Alfred Zimmerlin (b.1955), who last appeared in this space with trio KSZ & the electric Black Forest Diary (reviewed in April), with an acoustic trio also featuring two performers new to me, Eva-Maria Karbacher (soprano & tenor saxophones) & Christian Moser (oud): Their trio "Umiak," named after an Inuit boating configuration requiring cooperation, just released their first album Irrlicht (recorded in Germany, but with no dates provided), evoking a variety of watery situations. So here we move from trees to water, and with a wonderful crispness — or else a deliberate sloshing... — to the multi-track articulations, seemingly coordinated to the point that one must in turn wonder regarding rehearsal or composition (or how many takes, or how much editing...). But there's also the vibe of improv, with e.g. the more static passages implying (latent) dynamism as well: There're more mellow sections, but Irrlicht is generally an active album.... (The timbral braiding can also sound electronic at times, particularly via variations in string attacks & harmonics.) And the sax is said by the accompanying remarks — from Wide Ear Records, an increasingly compelling label (pace already Black Forest Diary, but also e.g. the recent Die Exorzistin as remarked around Florian Stoffner, with whom Zimmerlin also has an ongoing trio, last month...) — to be "navigating" the "power" provided by the string duo (& it may again be worth noting e.g. Joe Morris & intertwining strings, pace even F.I.M. & their duo Dignity, as reviewed here in July, there with a "dirtier" electric sound & generally lower pitch...): As noted, I was unfamiliar with Karbacher, but she did release a solo album on Wide Ear already (on soprano only), Ochotona Calls recorded in Athens in 2021, while Moser actually released a duo album on Creative Sources in 2020 (Inscape — with a different extended cellist, Paula Sanchez...). Here either can be resonant or percussive, and per the F.I.M. reference, it's also possible that they're students of Zimmerlin.... In any case, Irrlicht presents sophisticated interactions, generally lively, and with different senses of flow, often conjuring both planar dimension & depth... even senses of suspension. (Material moving at different, but related, speeds is a particular aspect of Umiak that can suggest coordination & indeed sophistication.) The result is then more thematically focused e.g. than Hunt at the Brook Again (from a not unsimilar ensemble, again pace the prior entry...), but consequently vividly evocative as well: Irrlicht is distinctive & surprising, so perhaps there'll be more....

Next is Portuguese double bassist João Madeira returning with a new trio, Trizmaris (recorded live in Lisbon in March 2023), featuring violinist Carlos "Zíngaro" & percussionist Sofia Borges. Madeira releases were quite frequent here for a while, but with a bit of a pause (& now an older recording...), it may be time to trace chronologies: Most recently reviewed here was actually the quartet Free to Open with Ernesto Rodrigues & Carlos Bechegas (both recorded & reviewed in April 2024), preceded by having noted his 4Da Record trio release N'Bandi (recorded in July 2023, so after Trizmaris...) — an EP already with Zingaro (& guitarist Guillaume Gargaud), said to be heralding more... — & more recently by release of his duo album with vocalist Margarida Mestre, Voz Debaixo (recorded back in 2022...), exploring textual space between singing & speaking.... Of course the more recent pairing with Rodrigues & Bechegas for Free to Open (along with Monsieur Trinité again there...) recalls parallels here that may be worth noting explicitly as well: I'd reviewed Madeira's & Rodrigues's different trio albums (with different cellists...) with Bechegas in November 2023 — & e.g. Rodrigues just released his own trio with Zingaro (& Bechegas again!) too, Spleen (recorded only this September...), a sort of "opposite" trio interaction focused on high textures, exploratory & often skittering, sliding, hocketing.... Trizmaris, however, emphasizes the rhythm team at various moments, e.g. with metallic anticipation, but also via deep resonance of wood & skins (& consequently often with a less pointed sonic presence...). And then this is the first mention of Borges here for me, although she also just appeared with the all-female quintet SORBD & their release Wild Peacock in Transit (with unknown recording date...) from Relative Pitch: Apparently that group has been around since 2019, while Borges is again joined by Edith Steyer — herself most recently appearing here with quintet Echoes in a further range, reviewed March 2022... — in Pink Monads for their album Multiple Visions of the Now (from last year on 4Da Record), a more open & exploratory quartet (vs. the jazzier, compositional orientation of SORBD), both featuring piano as well.... And further, Borges has appeared with Madeira before, including on Five Sneaky Leaf Tales (recorded in 2022), a free jazz-esque "cello trio" featuring Helena Espvall in aggressively contoured (even frenetic at times) performance: Borges' contribution is notably more sophisticated for Trizmaris, though (but then so is Espvall's for e.g. her new trio album Illuminations, recorded this past May with Rodrigues & previously unknown-to-me drummer Tracy Lisk...). Part of that sophistication may arise from playing with Zingaro then, as sometimes the violinist does leave the rhythm duo to their own interaction, basically accenting them, coming to the fore subsequently himself... in basically a "free jazz" format where everyone gets a chance to solo (& all duos are explored too...). So there's a strong egalitarian vibe overall, even as various reductions occur for various passages. And again in opposition to e.g. Spleen (which is also more rhetorical in its stance, pace e.g. the sometimes more traditionally expressive or even "primitivist" interaction on Trizmaris...), there's a considerable range of pitch explored here, also opening a rich & resonant bass range (& Madeira always does seem to bring rich textural details...), suggesting an open spaciousness at times too (such that e.g. we hear an object clatter to the floor mid-track #3, reminding as well that this is a live production...). Indeed the center of the texture is often left to Borges.... And the general restlessness & agitation do evoke (classic) free jazz at various points (pace less aggression, perhaps...), even as some passages are more slowly shifting in layers.... Trizmaris may thus be less novel in its developments than many releases featured here, but its senses of balancing various extremes can be both invigorating & satisfying.

Continuing (per some recent entries) to explore more "open" textural interactions here — i.e. versus more dense (or intensive) polyphony — the Spaces Unfolding trio returns with a quartet album augmented by electronics, Shadow Figures (recorded last December at England's Huddersfield University). Indeed the Spaces Unfolding trio — Neil Metcalfe (flute), Philipp Wachsmann (violin) & Emil Karlsen (drums) — had already produced The Way We Speak (recorded in 2021 & reviewed here in November 2022), a sometimes-melodic album with flute & violin that can consequently be compared to (some crossing of...) releases from the previous entry, i.e. Trizmaris, Spleen & Free to Open: The latter in particular (although a quartet) seems also to explore specifically a sense of "open" interaction (pace the title), airy & spacious. (Of course I'd also just recalled Metcalfe earlier this month, in chamber formation with Hunt at the Brook Again & with Neil Metcalfe: Although some nostalgic elements relate, that's generally a more densely contrapuntal performance....) And that's how The Way We Speak — the second release by relaunched Bead Records, after In Air, an even more sparse album — presented itself, as recorded in a church with its classic acoustic. Karlsen then situates the followup Shadow Figures in parallel, suggesting that electronics — by Pierre Alexandre Tremblay — basically constitute a different spatial "environment" for the trio. And much of that does revolve around bass hums & resonances — as Tremblay is credited elsewhere as a bassist, e.g. on the trio release (along with Karlsen) The Undanced Dance already on Bead Records (also with Alex Bonney, an engineer sometimes for Bead & e.g. a member of Not Applicable...) — although electronics also come higher into the texture at times or are otherwise more specifically noticeable, e.g. as glissandi. (There're also three duo tracks, one for each of the acoustic performers, where electronics are more forward. It's also the case that although Wachsmann employs electronics elsewhere himself, that's apparently left entirely to Tremblay here....) So Shadow Figures can be relatively sparse & exploratory, often with a sense of "sound installation," i.e. an exploration of space & an emphasis on audibility. There's a sort of patience (although some individual figures are rhythmic & quick...), and quite a long program as well (& I'm not sure what the repeating track titles signify, although as noted, three are indicated as duos...). And then the result might come off as a sort of mysterious, echoing & twittering jungle (i.e. outdoors), but also per pulsing waves or even a semi-industrial "distant radio" vibe... — both "Spaces Unfolding" releases projecting a rhetorical quality as well. (So there's almost a sense of folk music at times. Or maybe more a sense of snippets of quasi-industrial folk music of the future....) The rhetorical quality then finds its way through senses of spaciousness too (or what I called a "variable sonic fusion of human & landscape" for the trio review...), differing senses of context, but again an open sort of audibility & patience. One might even suggest that the open (acoustic) sense of spaciousness from The Way We Speak is "closed" by electronics for Shadow Figures, i.e. as passive background reasserting itself (or becoming active...). The result is then not generally dense sonically, i.e. suggests some of the vibe e.g. of ambient music (pace human-rhetorical musical figures given space to breathe...). And so I'm expecting more elaborations of this sort of open-spatial (quasi-ambient) style, both with & without electronic processing....

Udo Schindler appeared with Soundforge Laboratory here in September, shortly after flipping this page, and I'm already turning to a related trio release of note, Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers [Trio], recorded in Munich this past May: Soundforge Laboratory had involved adding to a duo recorded the previous day (in April) with Austrian cellist Noid, and that trend continues for Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers with double bassist Werner Dafeldecker, Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers [Duo] having been recorded the day prior (& released in August on Schindler's Bandcamp). There're further parallels, in that both string players have a relatively austere style, precise & exploring resonances, including via planning or sound installation.... (And Dafeldecker, an original member of legendary composed-music ensemble Polwechsel — which actually released a massive 4LP set late last year, Embrace on Ni Vu Ni Connu — has appeared elsewhere here, e.g. with Induction....) But there're non-parallels as well, as Soundforge Laboratory had added flute (i.e. a melody instrument) to form its trio around cello, while Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers [Trio] adds Gunnar Geisse on laptop guitar (which isn't as much a guitar played from a lap, as it is interfaced with a computer...) around the initial reed-bass pair. Geisse is then another musician whom I've heard only with Schindler, and who seems also to contribute to various of his trios (like flautist Erhard), e.g. already the more rock-infused GAU & superGAU (reviewed here together in August 2019), and then more recently Dachau Polyphonics (reviewed October 2022) by MUC Chamber Art Trio (in its second album), with another bassist (Sebastian Gramss). So the latter features a similar ensemble, but also more textural variety, including some genre references, forging wilder & often more involved counterpoint. (Geisse has joined Schindler as well for a trio series with pianist Max Arsava, Sightings and Stratifications recorded this July, with a first volume already released....) Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers does emphasize Dafeldecker & bass, though (i.e. as framed by the texture) — & these recordings return too to Schindler's Low Tone Studies series (contra the work with Noid...), now Nos. 19 & 20 — bringing as well a more focused exploration versus Dachau Polyphonics. Indeed Geisse not only projects an often Braxtonian aura for the trio, but generally uses electronics (per SuperCollider?) to "frame" a space (via both high & low...) for both acoustic players to interact. So there can be tremendous bass exploration here, not only per the precision of Dafeldecker himself, but with Schindler employing especially "double bass clarinet" (as well as cornet, tenor sax & even sopranino at times...), and then Geisse with low hums too (plus e.g. shimmering highs at various points). Although he can even sound like piano at times on Dachau Polyphonics, Geisse is usually much more spectral for Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers [Trio] then, even as he does emerge into more musico-figural expressions at times... including some "spacey" (but subtle) synthesizing electronics (& still a bit of piano). (And the Braxton comparison can be extended here to Schindler's variety of horns: Braxton himself employs other low reeds, including within analogous textures.) There's less evocation of genre at this point then, but various textures evolve, including slowly shifting resonances (& various subtle swells, sometimes suggesting accordion...), occasional jazzier snippets (especially from tenor range...), even another sort of nautical vibe (e.g. around cornet calls...). But it's generally not "outdoor" music either, with senses of interiority asserting themselves as well, "impersonal" senses of interiors (or installations...), sometimes more humanized by horns. And moreover there're senses of anticipation, already from the softly (scuffling) pregnant opening — building & shifting — fading away again to close.... In between, the trio conjures a distinctive sonic environment, overtone spectra aligned by hazy yet sparkling electronics, while leaving considerable space in the middle of the texture (especially) for a variety of (sometimes even tuneful...) investigations. Less melodically intricate than typical of Schindler then, Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers [Trio] (released on Creative Sources) forges its own sound world, a geometric (in the sense of "acoustics") world well-grounded in bass resonance(s), but also framing high into the audible spectrum (while being traversed & imbricated by snaking lines...). There's thus darkness to this music, but light too, awaiting further elaboration & illumination.

After a long (& not really intended...) run of music from Europe in this space, I want to return to North America for a recording (of unknown date) from Santa Fe — albeit appearing (suddenly) on Creative Sources — i.e. the relatively brief & certainly modestly titled, Trio: David Forlano (live sampling & electronics) is new here, but active of late in general, particularly with guitarist Barry Chabala (who also lives in New Mexico), e.g. trio albums Morning Music (with Clara Byom on Chabala's Roeba Recordings) & Juno (with drummer Drew Gowran on Confront) appearing earlier this year. Electronics can be wild at times on all three trio albums, but it does seem that Trio — including Chris Jonas (saxophones & e.g. recently of Braxton's Sax QT (Lorraine) 2022, also featuring mirroring electronics itself...) & Gregg Koyle (percussionist from Santa Fe classical groups) — ends up being more focused, even modernist one might say (as opposed to the sort of electric jungle vibe of e.g. Juno...). So while Chabala might tend toward almost a folk sound, Jonas suggests modern austerity (& e.g. cool jazz, perhaps...), clear lines & precise figurations at unorthodox angles — often rendered into a sort of polyphony by Forlano (who organized the recording session), also incisively. Percussion is frequently metallic then, accenting or driving what can sound like a quasi-classic free jazz sax trio at times (including in its explorations of timing...), but with new sax lines branching off..., or even senses of "rewind" or (brief) cartoonish vocal samples, twisting.... There's a surprising sense of space cultivated as well — also not unlike Forlano's vibe with Chabala at times — a sort of mysterious outdoorsiness that might suggest New Mexico, involving an overall sense of opening & easing then as well. (There's thus some invocation of the US West, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in particular, I suppose.... And I continue to associate landscapes of the American West with "new age" music more generally....) So, true to its title, Trio does come off rather modestly, but also rewards close attention right from the start, capturing a distinctive (yet tradition-based...) & focused sense of form & development.

From a very different part of North America, I'd reviewed the album Torche! here in December 2017, and the same quintet has now returned with Huit notions de détente, recorded in Québec in April 2023: One might characterize the forces as a sort of "free jazz quintet," i.e. three horns around bass & drums (although such a quintet is much more rare than a quartet with two horns...), but it's also an ensemble of smooth, laminar tones, rather than rhythmic agitation. So the "rhythm team" is generally subtle, Canadians Michel F. Côté on percussion (along with electronic sampling & synthesis...) & Éric Normand — on whose generally appealing Tour de Bras label these albums were released — on electric bass (with objects, etc.), joined by fellow Canadian Philippe Lauzier (bass clarinet & alto sax), as well as non-Canadians Xavier Charles (clarinet) & Franz Hautzinger (amplified trumpet). And then all that "electricity" in the credits might suggest a louder or more aggressive album, which as its title suggests, Huit notions de détente is not. The vibe is indeed generally calming over a sequence of rather similar scenes.... I might compare then e.g. to the liminal naturalism of Trio from the previous entry, but that's a much more rhythmically oriented interaction, so perhaps I should turn instead to the "on the porch" feel of e.g. Hour Music (a trio around pianist Magda Mayas, reviewed here this past May), i.e. to its sense of "in between" (i.e. transition, perhaps here lighting a flickering lamp in twilight...) space. (And I'd last mentioned Normand here with Attrape-mouches by trio Dionée, featuring accordion, in September 2022....) There's also a comparison to be made with trio HMZ, already themselves appearing on Tour de Bras (with Drought, first reviewed here in January 2017...), but with more parallels subsequently from Ize (recorded in 2018), an often smoother album involving e.g. subtle synth.... (And the most recent review of Normand here was also alongside Pierre-Yves Martel — & Charles — with quartet album Le Rnst, March 2021....) However, those albums do all involve piano, and so e.g. some strong attacks (& e.g. gamelan-esque chordal figures...), whereas Torche! & its triple horn lineup is based around a flexible-pitch rhythm team. The horns can also be difficult to tell apart, although each is distinctive in each passage, i.e. via overlapping lines (& e.g. drones...), close attention to e.g. tonguing & slight variations in articulation, variations amplifying over time.... There's almost even a mechanical sense of procedure to the different tracks, various means of continuity.... In any case, Huit notions de détente develops the sparser, or perhaps more tentative, energies of Torche! considerably, the modest character of its quasi-everyday evocations being both strength & weakness, i.e. calling (perhaps) for more variation or development. Nonetheless, although there's usually not a lot happening in any particular moment, the quintet projects a distinctive sense of multi-dimensionality via both differing clashes within its wind constellation & subtle shaping from below. There's thus a sort of slow tunefulness, but close attention, a slow (shearing) clash of lines modulating intensities, perhaps modulating mindfulness itself.... The result can be rather powerful, so I do hope they continue — as after all, both HMZ & Erb-Mayas-Hemingway have gone past two albums in developing their own respective sounds....

Now 84 years old & living in Wisconsin, Roscoe Mitchell continues to be active: One Head Four People was recorded in Chicago this year (on an unnamed date or dates...), reprising his quartet with the Ewen-Smith-Walter trio documented previously on A Railroad Spike Forms The Voice — a long, single track album recorded in 2014, but released only in 2021 (& reviewed here that May). It'd also seemed more like an impromptu session (in Oakland at the time), various continuities & explorations blossoming across the quartet interaction, but a more open-ended sense of "waiting" maintaining at many points.... So One Head Four People is now more focused, Mitchell having apparently given intervening thought to how he wanted to proceed with this quartet — as the title suggests that this is his overall conception (& I guess the quartet itself is called "Gratitude," per the cover, although the reverse seems to make as much sense...) — with a grant providing the impetus for this specific project (or again, vice versa?). There's then another "opposite" quality here, as A Railroad Spike Forms The Voice often involved e.g. twittering in high ranges, whereas for One Head Four People, Mitchell plays exclusively bass saxophone. And I'm not a jazz historian, so can't refer to historical bass saxophone recitals, an unusual situation it would certainly appear.... But Mitchell himself does regularly employ the bass sax in combination with other horns, e.g. already on Conversations (as does e.g. Anthony Braxton, who also employs e.g. contrabass sax for his big DCWM duos...), which I start to notice more specifically in the wake of One Head Four People. And Conversations is a relevant comparison further, in that "ninja drummer" Kikanju Baku both features a similar (i.e. very fast) style to Weasel Walter (although they sound more divergent in slower work...) & even presents himself in a similar sort of "over the top" fashion. On that earlier album then — which continues to be a source of ongoing material for Mitchell, i.e. for further compositions & arrangements... — pianist Craig Taborn (who is not active on every track) fills between the basic horn & drums duet, whereas for this quartet album, it's Damon Smith & Sandy Ewen who provide more textural support between Mitchell & Walter, again a basic (polar) dynamic that's underscored by the 4-track series of solo percussion from Walter toward the end of the program. (One Head Four People is over an hour long, and the solo totals about 15 minutes, leaving a standard length album, although there's also e.g. an extended guitar & bass duet to conclude the third track, followed by a sax solo to open the fourth.... And so it's not full quartet textures throughout.) Those percussion tracks are also rather different in tone — although Walter does employ chiming metal (along with e.g. bass drum, etc...) in full ensemble passages as well — conjuring more of William Winant's metallic percussion world from Mitchell's ethereal Angel City (recorded in 2012, also in Oakland, and reviewed here together with Conversations in February 2015...), i.e. inflecting the overall sweep of the program, apparently per Mitchell. These tracks also project a strong sense of space & resonance overall, with the entire production differing from a typical Walter "in your face" sound (& also, it seems, appearing "only" in CD-quality audio...), in favor of more spaciousness.... And then the younger performers do continue to be active, with Ewen & Smith both last appearing here (together, as it happens) with Meshes of Light (reviewed in August), and Walter with Branches Choke (another quartet, also with Smith, reviewed March 2023). (Smith has been the most prolific of this trio, appearing here with other projects during the interim, e.g. The Cold Arrow as reviewed last December & 29 Birds You Never Heard as noted in July....) Meanwhile, like e.g. Conversations, One Head Four People was released on the Wide Hive label (& is available on commercial streaming, not Bandcamp...), where Mitchell has been releasing many of his new projects, most recently Roscoe Mitchell Orchestra and Space Trio at the Fault Zone Festival (recorded in 2022), featuring e.g. an orchestral adaptation of Distant Radio Transmissions (itself from Conversations, and a Mitchell title I've been using as a generic descriptor here...). And then although I do associate (post-punk) drummers such as Walter or Baku with speed (really, precision...), perhaps in part due to the bass sax, One Head Four People features as well slower passages & interactions (as had indeed Conversations at times...), perhaps even e.g. a sort of ballad around bass sax, itself specifically enforcing a slower pace at times, or so it would seem. The result can come off almost as a "low tone study" then (to use a term from Udo Schindler, who regularly plays tubax, below bass sax...), with all four performers operating often in the bass range, e.g. growling. (A sonic image that's crystallized for me around some of Ewen's characteristic guitar sounds is that of a big bathtub draining fast, rattling & echoing....) However, after a sort of opening clatter (apparently recalling the similar opening to A Railroad Spike Forms The Voice...), Mitchell & his horn are generally centered (& also offer hints of jazz at times...), often with various rhythmic (& timbral) agitations roiling around succinct horn figures, rhythmic drive per se also generally subsumed to an overall flow (i.e. "tapestry" style...). There can even be a sense of this resulting "environment" becoming overwhelming, but Mitchell keeps his navigation & command rolling. (One might recall e.g. Muhal Richard Abrams & Streaming, discussed briefly & belatedly here in February 2019, with Mitchell himself more in a supporting role....) And maybe he even induces the others to slow a bit, in another kind of easing.... One Head Four People is then very much North American music, and I was frankly excited to see (& hear) the legendary Mitchell renew his work with this choice of associates (pace e.g. their own 2012 classic here, Ewen / Smith / Walter...).

And then bassist Damon Smith had already visited Udo Schindler in 2019, yielding The Munich Sound Studies Vol. 1 & The Munich Sound Studies Vol. 2 & 3, as released by FMR (& reviewed here in January 2021). Volume 2 was a duo, but Volumes 1 & 3 added flautist Karina Erhard & vocalist Jaap Blonk, respectively. Of course, the latter had been active already with Smith, while the former is a regular partner for Schindler (especially in trios). Well, Smith returned to Munich in May 2023 — now with guitarist Sandy Ewen — to record three more concerts with Schindler (on three consecutive dates), released last week on Smith's Balance Point Acoustics label as a triple album, Munich Sound Studies Vols. 4, 5 & 6. This time each recital is a quartet, all featuring Smith & Ewen alongside Schindler, with a different fourth colleague: Erhard returns for Volume 4, and Blonk for Volume 5, while (regular Schindler colleague) Sebastiano Tramontana joins for Volume 6. As 2023 recordings then, Munich Sound Studies Vols. 4, 5 & 6 were also forged prior to some other albums already reviewed, so perhaps it's worth filling in some history, as effects of these sessions can seemingly be heard elsewhere: There's the previous entry, and Smith & Ewen's quartet recording with Roscoe Mitchell (itself a sort of low tone study, as already noted...), One Head Four People seemingly drawing (in part) from the quartet interactions with Schindler (& involving e.g. more growling bathtub guitar sounds...), but also Schindler's own prolific series of releases over the past several months: There're the two Creative Sources trio releases (with another on the way, with pianist Max Arsava, as already noted...), Disturbed Terrains (reviewed here in July) & Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers [Trio] (reviewed earlier this month!), but also a couple of more "intimate" or austere trios released by Schindler himself, Dense Bushes with Delicate Chirps (recorded in September 2023 & reviewed here in February 2024) & Soundforge Laboratory (recorded in April 2024 & reviewed here in September): Both of the latter involve Erhard in trio with Schindler (alongside a bowed string), and seemingly reflect some of the "more chordal" textural explorations from Volume 4 of Munich Sound Studies. Additionally, Ewen's work in zoomimesis (e.g. See Creatures, as noted earlier this year around Meshes of Light, as just recalled above...), particularly in terms of "negative impressions," seems reflected in Dense Bushes with Delicate Chirps (another album featuring two women...) as well.... (And pace the previous entry, Ewen is also more textural here — & even percussive — versus e.g. the "framing" from guitarist Gunnar Geisse for Travelling Sound Images - Cognitive Transfers [Trio], i.e. the latter involving conjuring more an environment for others....) Anyway, as the remarks suggest, flute is generally more textural for Munich Sound Studies Vol. 4, less often distinctly melodic, consequently yielding a denser sound at times (& some rather more minimal landscape passages too...). It's also worth noting the different horns that Schindler employs for the different sets: Trumpet is the one fixture here actually, particularly prominent for Munich Sound Studies Vol. 5, but regularly involving a switch from reeds (& a tuba for Volume 5), clarinets for Volume 4 (per the later recordings noted here...) & saxes for Volumes 5 & 6, the latter including tubax (i.e. pitched below bass sax). Volume 5 then also recalls One Head Four People in that (after an opening trumpet solo...) Blonk is often centered, not only on voice (in fine form, with his typical range of stylings...), but with various aggressive electronics at other points: This is the longest of the three recitals, and also the most assertive around Blonk, including various recitative-like passages. (And Blonk's various work with Smith is perhaps at its most coherent with Rune Kitchen, but the two had also involved Ewen from way back for the enigmatic North of Blanco, first reviewed here May 2014....) Then Volume 6 comes off instead as more "free jazz" (& so a little old-fashioned...) around Tramontana, himself first noted here with Live at Banlieue Bleue (with Joëlle Léandre...), but also later in the very first Schindler entry here (e.g. reviewing Hell dunkel, in November 2017), and then e.g. Canto Senza Parole (noted June 2023): Schindler is especially striking for Volume 6 on tubax, long & twisting lines dueling with trombone (& sometimes becoming jazzier than other Volumes here...), often with simpler "accompanying" textures (but some older style counterpoint sometimes too...). And then this release is even named as "studies" — indeed further fusing North American & European performers — as already reflected by subsequent releases noted here. (And to recap, it's Volume 4 that made the biggest impression, including recalling — or anticipating — the subsequent recordings I'd already noted....) Each program also presents different stylistic orientations & strengths, and I'd recommend hearing them individually: Given the Bandcamp format, I've listened to the three recitals back-to-back-to-back twice now, and that's exhausting. (The latter quality does differ from some of Schindler's more open affective productions this year, e.g. Soundforge Laboratory....)

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