Eventually the set climaxed with each participant magisterially stretching his or her instrument to its limits via sprinkles of continuous notes from Parker; higher-pitched pulls from Léandre that practically mirrored the reed work; positioned brush strokes and mallet taps from Kaucic; and piles of arpeggios from Fernández. Crucially though, the polyphonic connection was such that in spite of the constant multiphonic explosions, each player could be heard clearly.
This same sort of connection existed the previous night when Slovenian tenor saxophonist Cene Resnik’s Free Stellar Trio, consisting of fellow Slovenian drummer Marko Lasic and Italian pianist Giorgio Pacorig, was joined by American Rob Mazurek playing piccolo trumpet. Welcoming Mazurek’s unconventional antics, which included playing directly into the piano innards and using an apple (the fruit) as a bell mute, the trio members adapted his piercing, echoing initiatives to their own narratives.
Resnik’s split-tone muscularity advanced contrapuntally alongside Mazurek’s piercing trills, while the pianist’s dynamic runs, often created with up-turned elbows, plus the drummer’s propulsive percussion, provided the perfect backdrop. At points Lasic’s barrage of rumbles, kicks and slaps created a coda to some spectacular a capella improvising from the saxophonist, then reversed to become prelude to complex pianism plus processed echoes from the trumpeter. Eventually the contrapuntal band connection boiled down to a retreating process of slurping reed tones mixed with half-valve brass effects and tick-tock drums, with near-rustic, straight-ahead keyboard patterns applying the concluding brakes to the performance.