| The lineup for this disc--soprano/tenor, piano & bass--is identical
to the Parker/Bley/Phillips trio that recorded two discs for ECM, &
with Phillips present here again the resemblance is even more striking.
& yet it comes out very different: the Parker/Bley/Phillips trio
was highly melodic (unusually so for an Evan Parker outing), a
continuous lyricism that was very much front-and-centre (Bley, however
pensive, is no shrinking violet, & the ECM echo flushes out the
least sound). By contrast this is a very oblique session--all three
players choose to perform in a highly pointillist, nonlinear fashion,
quietly but abruptly. Leimgruber's saxophone often delivers more
unpitched hisses & sighs than actual notes; Demierre (whose musical
experience ranges from improv to IRCAM) plays elegantly splintered
chords with a surprisingly light & elusive touch; Phillips is often
as percussive as melodic. One of the most astonishing passages occurs
on the titletrack: whereas it's a cliche of free-jazz & free-improv
that a long improvisation start quietly & build to a climax, then
die away, this performance's central section is about 5 minutes of near
inaudibility. The 3rd track, on the other hand, is unusually loud, an
improvised minimalist ballad--over its 10 minutes I doubt the musicians
collectively play more than 100 distinct notes.
Not a disc for the
casual listener, perhaps, but anyone who's responded to a disc like the
Parker/Bley/Phillips "Time Will Tell" or Giuffre's "Free Fall" will
find this absorbing listening. |