VARIOUS
Audiology - Total Music Meeting 2001
all
002

VARIOUS
Seventh of May 2001: Freedom of the city
Matchless
MRCD47


Keeping up with contemporary improvised European music has never been an easy task from North America. Heck, considering the combination of obscurity and disdain that greets most intelligent music on this continent, keeping up with local improvisers is difficult enough.

That's why these two releases are particularly valuable. Not only do they provide a snapshot of what was happening on that Continent during 2001, but over the three CDs you can sample 18 different bands featuring both veteran explorers and tyro improv investigators. Furthermore, despite the EU and the euro, that body of water that separated Great Britain from the Continent still makes a difference. You'll hear how, as it has been for years, BritImprov is still a lot different than EuroImprov.

One rational for this is that Seventh of May, recorded in London, centres on sound recorded by Matchless, the label associated with AMM and pure, almost limitless improv. Meanwhile Audiology was recorded in November 2001 in Berlin by the FMP label, which usually releases the sort of harsher, more unbending improv associated with Northern Europe. In truth, some of the most diffuse sounds on that disc come from IST, the one British band represented, if repeating the fact isn't trafficking in geographical stereotypes.

Be that as it may, Seventh lets you hear seven different takes on the state of British improvisation, while Total offers music from a cross section of Germans, leavened by a Swede, a Portuguese, a Spaniard, a Japanese, a couple of Italians and even an American who brought along his computer interactive pianist.

Punctuated by the rhythmic blues-gospel feel of pianist Uli Gumpert, "Hymnus III," is the most instantly approachable number. Not only that, but the work of these pioneer German improvisers, trombonist Conrad Bauer, reedist Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky and percussionist Günter "Baby" Sommer is closest to free jazz. So too is Die Enttäuschung's workout on "Out Of Nowhere," featuring the most conventional trumpet playing you'll ever likely to hear from German micotonalist Axel Dörner.

Spectacular too is the tour de force solo piano of Barcelona's Agústi Fernández, with its rollercoaster attack. Meantime "Licking The Bullfrog" by those longtime tricksters, Germans Rüdiger Carl on clarinet and accordion, and Hans Reichel on daxophone and guitar, plus Portuguese violinist Carlos Zingaro, contain as many funny noises as this band room of instruments could pack into a tune. Both pieces involving woodwind specialist Armand Angster and soprano Francoise Kubler revolve around the contrasts that can be created between instrumental tones and those of the human voice.

Finally "Surprise Act" finds five of Europe's top improvisers duking it out with American trombonist George Lewis and Voyager, his interactive computer pianist. The contest ends in a draw. Throughout, the distinctive strategies of stylists like Dörner, Zingaro, inventive German percussionist Paul Lovens and Lewis himself show that electronics can be a worthwhile addition to improvisation, just a long as its partnered with humans.

The same conclusion can be drawn from the London concert. Both Bark! and Charaoui/Lely/Wright use electronics to good effect on their outings, which last more than 20 minutes each. Both bands also now seem to have a more sophisticated, less timid method of dealing with the kilowatts than they did on their earlier CDs. Bark! has more of an edge, though, as Rex Casswell's guitar asides and Phillip Marks powerful off-kilter percussion patterns are better able to integrate Paul Obermayer's electronic swirls and rustles into a whole, than Yann Charaoui's rather wan vocals and minimal drumming plus Seymour Wright's saxophone peeps do with John Lely's piano and electronics.

Particles, on the other hand, appears to rely more on the squeaks and overblown trills than can be produced from Sandy Kindness' tenor saxophone or the subdued plucks of Ross Lambert's guitar to do much with the vocal effects processed by bass guitarist Romuald Wadych. It's these minute gestures, however which find Continentals sometime disparaging BritImprov as so-called insect music.

However, in his more-than-19 minute solo piece and on a nearly 351/2-minute trio outing, veteran drummer Eddie Prévost proves how even the most unforced percussion can lead a band forward through different tempos, accents and emphasis. Moving between different parts of his kit like a medieval guild master in his workshop, he uses different sticking patterns and his palms to shape the sound. His beats can make the sound conflate to screaming, near energy music levels, or alternately settle down into a subtle groove. In the trio, bassist John Edwards steps forward only rarely, but the odd, deep thumping pizz or elongated arco color he profers to keep the rhythm going, shows why he's one of the most in-demand sidemen on London's improv scene. Up front, soprano saxophonist Tom Chant spits out single notes or whistles whole tones with abandon in the quicker sections, but at a slower tempo, his lines seem to hover midway between the twin BritImprov sax fountainheads of John Butcher and Evan Parker.

Parker, on tenor saxophone, is on hand to duet with AMM pianist John Tilbury. Restrained, perhaps in deference to the pianist's classical leanings, the saxophonist exhibits none of his justly famous circular breathing, but makes his points through trills, reed biting and vibrato. Until the penultimate section, that is, where he loosens the time with some squalls, slap tongues and smeary doits. At that point, this could be a record of Paul Gonsalves or Ben Webster playing a living room session with Duke Ellington or Billy Strayhorn. Although it must be admitted that Tilbury's right handed formalism and regular arpeggios don't suggest the rhythmic inventiveness of either of those two men.

As Parker and Tilbury's duo suggests, concerts like this can be meetings of old friends; provide the introduction of talented tyros as exemplified by some of the bands on the discs; present working groups; or highlight festival showcases. Audiology and Seventh offer all of those combinations and more. Singly or together, it would be heard to find better aural pictures of contemporary European improv, both for the novice or the serious partisan.


-- Ken Waxman


Track Listing Audiology: 1. Voyager; 2. Punkt Und Line; 3. Hymnus III; 4. Wirbel Und Einzelne Schläge Auf Kleiner Trommel; 5. Out of Nowhere; 6. Coro 2; 7. Licking the Bullfrog; 8. The Sea Under the Snow; 9. Ploc/Lucullus; 10. Spilling Beans; 11. Voyage For Seven

Track Listing Seventh Disc 1 - The Afternoon: 1. @ 2.30pm; 2. @ 3.15pm; 3. @ 3.45pm

Track Listing Seventh Disc 2 - The Evening: 1. @ 7.30pm; 2. @ 8.15pm; 3. @ 8.45pm; 4. @ 9.15pm


Personnel Audiology: 1. George Lewis, trombone; Aki Takase, piano; Voyager, interactive computer pianist 2. IST: Rhodri Davies, harp; Mark Wastell, cello; Simon H. Fell, bass 3. ZentralQuartet: Conrad Bauer, trombone; Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, alto and tenor saxophones; Uli Gumpert, piano; Günter "Baby" Sommer, drums, percussion 4. Sven-Åke Johansson, solo percussion 5. Die Enttäuschung: Axel Dörner, trumpet; Rudi Mahall, bass clarinet; Jan
Roder, bass; Uli Jenneßen, drums, percussion 6. Giancarlo Locatelli, clarinet; Alberto Braida, piano; 7. Manuela: Rüdiger Carl, clarinet, accordion; Carlos Zingaro, violin; Hans Reichel, daxophone, guitar 8. Agústi
Fernández, piano 9. Francoise Kubler, soprano; Armand Angster, clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet 10. Contrabass Clarinet Project: Francoise Kubler, soprano; Wolfgang Fuchs, Armand Angster, contrabass clarinets; Paul
Lovens, drums, percussion 11. Surprise Act: Axel Dörner, trumpet; George Lewis, trombone; Wolfgang Fuchs, contrabass clarinet; Carlos Zingaro, violin; Uli Gumpert, piano; Voyager, interactive computer pianist; Paul Lovens,
drums, percussion

Personnel Seventh Disc 1: 1. Bark!: Rex Casswell, guitar; Phillip Marks, drums; Paul Obermayer, electronics 2. Eddie Prévost, solo percussion: 3. Seymour Wright, alto saxophone; John Lely, piano, electronics; Yann Charaoui, snare drum, vocals

Personnel Seventh Disc 2: 1. Tom Chant, sopranos saxophone; John Edwards, bass; Eddie Prévost, drums 2. Particles: Sandy Kindness, tenor saxophone; Ross Lambert, guitar; Romuald Wadych, bass guitar, effects; Tim Goldie, drums 3. Denis Dubovtsev, soprano saxophone; Wadych, bass guitar 4. Evan Parker, te nor saxophone; John Tilbury, piano