A long overdue meeting of two of the titans of the saxophone today. Alan Wilkinson (alto, baritone & voice) and Peter Brötzmann (clarinet, tarogato & tenor) together with Willi Kellers (drums) and Simon H. Fell (bass) blow up one hell of a storm. The individuals on this recording consciously commit, putting themselves 'out there,' over the edge. The energy, the electricity, generated by saxophonists Wilkinson and Brötzmann, is a result of their fearless approach to the precipice and their willingness to stare, unblinking, into the abyss. And yet while this music, free jazz, improv, call it what you will, exists at the boundary of our cultural existence, it echoes the sounds first identified as jazz, back at the birth pangs of the modern age. It is the commitment to a collective sound devoid of ego with the fearless individual, that makes this music extraordinary, that provides the moments of almost spiritual communion. |