Evan Parker Octet

Crossing the River
psi 06.02

Although there’s a numerical equivalence plus the crossover of several musicians, this octet shouldn’t be confused with the ensemble involved in tenor saxophonist Evan Parker’s electro-acoustic performances.

For a start there’s no hint of electronics here, even from violinist Philipp Wachsmann, who commonly uses wave forms as regularly as rosin. Plus while Wachsmann and Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández are on board, there’s no sign of the reedist’s long-time playing partners, bassist Barry Guy and drummer Paul Lytton. There’s no drummer at all in fact, while Wachsmann is part of a string choir of cellist Marcio Mattos, bassist John Edwards and guitarist John Russell – all of whom have played with Parker in other contexts. Most jolting is that the saxophonist is one of three horn players. John Rangecroft’s clarinet and Neil Metcalfe’s flute are the other wind instruments. Over the course of the more-than-77-minute CD, both get more space than Parker himself.

In short, Crossing the River highlights the crossing of yet another frontier for the constantly innovating Parker. Organizing a reciprocal interaction involving trios, duos and a string quintet as well the promised octet, he’s created a pointillistic improv chamber work, almost unique in his catalogue.

Admittedly this aggregation does take some getting used to, since the characteristic Parker slurs and circular breathing rarely appear. In their place are the distinct timbres of Rangecroft and Metcalfe, both of whom were in drummer John Stevens’ Spontaneous Musical Ensemble (SME) and are now part of the London Improvisers’ Orchestra. The flautist, who recently recorded with bassist Nick Stephens, even gets a track to himself and Fernández. Coupling his lyrical trilling with the pianist’s stops and strums on vibrating strings, the intersecting parallel lines create what could be termed a POMO impressionistic recital.

Matched with Russell and Mattos, the clarinetist’s trio outing is more dissonant. Focused on his espousal of the Parker canon, Rangecroft’s irregularly vibrated split tones work their way through the registers with tongue stops, ghost notes and shrill glissandi. Meanwhile the cellist shuffle bows, and the guitarist – whose showcase this is as well – provides the ostinato when he isn’t heartily downstroking or plucking exaggerated runs.

Staccato multiphonics and sweeping tremolo passages throughout the disc characterize the interpretations of Wachsmann, the ensemble’s most consistent soloist. Additionally, his unique techniques fittingly wedge themselves among the other players’ output in the octet tracks. Polyphonic fantasias, combined the octet outings take up more than 40 minutes of the CD.

On the first, strings and horns in broken chords ascend to an early climax. As Fernández accedes from low-frequency piano chords to powerful cross-handed arpeggios, the violinist and cellist harmonize double counterpoint, as flute peeps appear and disappear with regularity. Before the four string players turn to sul tasto and sul ponticello shuffle bowing extended with pressurized drones from prepared piano, Parker burbles and snorts. Spurred by sharp pizzicato asides from Wachsmann, the saxophonist’s lowing tones soon mesh with clarinet trills and flute vibration leading the entire octet to a finale, extended with chording piano and clarinet glissandi.

Shorter, though shaped by buzzing cross tones and contrapuntal impulses, the later octet tracks feature chromatic finger picking from Russell, an overflow of twittering aviary notes from Metcalfe and strident sul ponticello from the bowed instruments. With the associated result ping-ponging from opaque to translucent and back again, unmistakable Parker slurs and quacks occasionally surface then vanish within the polyphony. This swirling and whirling crescendo of vibrating timbres reaches a climax of multi-instrument interaction then leaches away. A 40-second coda of flute and piano places an unnecessary musical cherry on top of the musical cake.

Another wholly unforeseen essay in Free Improv by Parker and company, Crossing the River deserves a careful hearing. But remember it’s a disc of ensemble(s) work, not a Parker showcase.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Octet 1 2. Quintet 3. Trio 1 4. Trio 2 5. Trio 3 6. Duo 7. Octet 2 8. Octet 3

Personnel: John Rangecroft (clarinet); Evan Parker (tenor saxophone); Neil Metcalfe (flute); Philipp Wachsmann (violin); Agustí Fernández (piano); John Russell (guitar); Marcio Mattos (cello); John Edwards (bass)

August 11, 2006

Agustí Fernández & Mats Gustafsson

Critical Mass
psi

Agustí Fernández
Camallera
G3 Records/Sirulita

Agustí Fernández Quartet
Lonely Woman
Taller de Músics/Sirulita

By Ken Waxman
February 27, 2006

Without trying to propose a rigid maxim, it’s evident that much of the best improvised music has come from individuals whose ethnic group was or is removed from the mainstream.

Jazz, of course, was invented by oppressed African Americans, and since that time its most accomplished practitioners have usually been players from Black, Jewish, Italian or other minority backgrounds. The situation is a little more muddled in Europe, but interestingly enough the first universally acknowledged non-American jazzer was a Roma, guitarist Django Reinhardt. While setting up a hierarchy of victimology is silly, it’s instructive to consider, for example, that the two most acclaimed Spanish pianists are Catalan, not majority Spaniards. Tete Montoliu (1933-1997) was a masterful pop-bopper as his many sessions with American sidemen attest; while today, Barcelona-resident Agustí Fernández is similarly accepted in so-called avant-garde jazz circles.

Since the late 1990s Fernández has recorded with such international experimenters as American bassist William Parker and British reedist John Butcher, and is now a regular member of larger ensembles led by saxophonist Evan Parker and bassist Barry Guy. He hasn’t neglected the Catalan scene however, and works with Barcelona-based groups like Trio Local.

His most recent CDs affirm this geographical duality. Critical Mass matches him with Swedish baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson; Lonely Woman is a quartet session with three fellow Barcelona residents, one of whom is also in Trio Local; while Camallera is one hour plus of extracts from an all-day [!] live solo concert he gave in Girona, Spain.

Like other self-aware improvisers of any stripe, Fernández likely doesn’t characterize his playing as paramountly reflecting Catalan concerns, but, especially on the solo CD of piano and prepared piano creations, percussive Latinesque inflections appear. It’s the same for Lonely Woman which adds a different time sense to eight Ornette Coleman compositions. Nonetheless, cognizant of European geography, it’s interesting to contemplate who the legitimately “hot” player is, and who the legitimately “cold” one is on Critical Mass.

Ascending from a series of tongue slaps and ratcheting keyboard shuffles, the duo CD’s 10 tracks are abstract, but not cold. Throughout, Gustafsson’s work is as much about lung tissue and constricted throat pressure as the percussive and linear qualities of his tenor and baritone saxophone expositions. Often combining the subtle shading of a Butcher with the balls-to-the-wall concentration of a Peter Brötzmann, the saxophonist melds his note patterns into an output that’s almost organic. Improvising cross patterns in his wake, Fernández produces unique tambourine-like rattling pressures, which encompasses stopped nodes and other conceptualized prepared piano movements, as well as octave jumps, contrasting dynamics and strummed chords from the keyboard itself.

On a selection like the nearly seven-minute “4 Critical Mass 6:53”, for instance, tongue percussion, glottal punctuation and altissimo cries on Gustafsson’s part meet a fantasia of vibrating plucks and slides plus concentrated string agitation from Fernández. Elsewhere, while dramatic interchange results from the contrast between saxophone snorts, growls and snarls and abrasive rumbles and fortissimo keyboard reverberation, lingering, prettier patterns are on show as well. “5 Critical Mass 4:46” highlights near-silent impressionism on the pianist’s part that turns to bowing across the wound strings, the better to complement the short breaths of colored air leaking from the saxophone bell.

Singularly, Gustafsson pumps out spetrofluctuation, key pops, volcanic sputters and glossolalia, with each exposition sharper and louder than the next. Then while playing solo on the penultimate track, Fernández varies his narratives among rolls and rumbles and extends it with pedal work; plucks the internal strings with mini-pincers or other instruments and rubs them with a coarse cloth. Subsequently, polyphonic chords appear when he hammers strings with a mallet while simultaneously rattling the keyboard.

There’s plenty of scope for these and other extended techniques on the six selections that make up Camallera. This tour-de-force adapts prepared piano strategies and electronic interface to an acoustic piano’s the output. Sporadically, in fact, it appears as if the strings and keys themselves are too limited for his expression, so Fernández creates new patterns by hitting the pins, bars and screws of the action so that it resonates as well.

Expressing himself through node-stopping and partials, almost every tune vibrates with unique designs created as the stentorian resonance from balanced tension is disrupted. Entire passages echo with tremolo slides, others sound as if a mini cymbal is resting on top of, and shivering along with, whacked wound strings. Still others unfurl from almost spinet-like delicacy to Spanish-tinged fantasias, which while improvised, suggest baroque inventions. Bottleneck scratches and scrapes that stab the piano’s wood as well as the strings are part of another approach.

This divergence among varied dynamics finally resolves itself in the final quarter of the program. Here cascading waves of pedal-expanded, bass-inflected notes vibrate the sound board and bottom board along with the appropriate sonic sources, but gradually lose their power as dissonant spaces liquefy, making languid timbres as hushed as they were initially strident – finally shrinking first to mini clusters then single notes.

Techniques exhibited on the preceding discs are held in check on Lonely Woman as Fernández shares space with three other players. While some may marvel at circumstances where interpreting Ornette Coleman lines become the most conventional sounds from a trio of discs, Lonely Woman is memorable for another reason. It appears as if the Catalan musicians are able to inhabit the eight tunes through the similar background they share with the Fort Worth, Tex.-born Coleman. Not only is there commonality in the Spanish-inflected themes, but through provincial stubbornness expressed by minority Americans or minority Spaniards.

Latinesque voicing creep into the pianist’s solo and duo work and when on “Latin Genetics” the quartet takes off on a bolero rhythm following internal piano string scraping and tongue slaps from saxophonist Liba Villavecchia, the resulting speedy piano chords and swift bass solo from David Mengual heighten the Hispanic suggestions in Coleman’s innate primitivism.

An associate of Fernández in Trio Local, soprano and tenor saxophonist Villavecchia is also a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music via a Fulbright scholarship. Bassist Mengual often plays in more mainstream settings, with one of his CDs recently voted Spanish Jazz record of the year. German-born drummer Jo Krause teaches at the jazz and legit conservatories in Barcelona, having spent years before that in Amsterdam.

There’s no extroverted Dutch zaniness here – although the Spaniards did control the Netherlands for a while – but unlike the other sessions, there are examples of mix’n’match musical play acting. At one point, on alto, Villavecchia seems to be channeling Benny Carter; on “What Reason”, the balladic breakdown with piano, bass and drums makes the performance as dreamy and atmospheric as one by the original Bill Evans trio; while “Mob Job” features a dynamic stride excursion with repetitive chordal patterns from the pianist.

More serious are treatment of “Unknown Artist”, which has been recorded under different names, and the extensive – 13 minutes plus – run-through of Coleman’s best-known piece, the title tune. Starting with a polyphonic yet cohesive statement, the former is quickly broken up into disparate parts – twittering alto lines, double flams and rebounds from the drummer and cascading chords that feature two-handed contrasting dynamics from the pianist. Eventually, Villavecchia sounds the familiar theme, which elsewhere is known as “Dancing In Your Head”, backed by keyboard arpeggios and focused rebounds from the drummer. Krause augments his role with ratcheting cymbal concussion, alternating with bass drum accents, until the saxophonist recaps the head.

Designed as a major statement, “Lonely Woman” begins with a plucked, deep-toned bass intro that sounds as if it migrated over from Charles Mingus’ “Haitian Fight Song”. Layering broken chords, the altoist and pianist expose the familiar line as Krause rumbles and ruffs in an understated manner. Split tones from Villavecchia on tenor saxophone give way to a delicate low-frequency recapitulation of the theme from Fernández that moves from single notes to clusters of tremolo cadenzas as if he was Glenn Gould decoding new meaning from a Bach concerto.

Following variations on the theme from each player, the coda turns abstract; consisting of Villavecchia snorting and squealing and the pianist carving successive slivers of the melody into minute pieces until it disappears.

A major stylist in a variety of settings, these CDs show how Fernández adapts to different circumstances and makes you wonder what other musical surprises could arise from minority Catalonia.

February 27, 2006

Barry Guy New Orchestra

Oort – Entropy
Intakt

Maya Homburger & Barry Guy with Pierre Favre
Dakryon
Maya

By Ken Waxman
September 11, 2005

Established as one of FreeImprov’s most accomplished composer/bandleaders as well as a major improvising double bassist, Barry Guy continues to extend his musical range.

Having slimmed down his main compositional tool, the 17-piece London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LJCO) to the more compact 10 piece, all-star Barry Guy New Orchestra (BGO), Oort – Entropy shows how the group reconstitutes specific sounds. The idea is to expand musical elements initially conceived for Guy’s trio with American pianist Marilyn Crispell and British drummer Paul Lytton.

Dakryon, on the other hand, explores an even more diminutive facet of his art. A member of an Early Music ensemble early in his career, Guy extends those concepts on several tracks of this CD. Using themes written by composers H.I.F. Biber and Dario Castello in the 17th century, these performances are in part baroque showcases for Guy’s wife, Swiss violinist May Homburger. Filling out the nearly 75-minute CD are contemporary Guy compositions eliciting the skills of the husband-and-wife duo plus Swiss drummer Pierre Favre.

Favre, another first generation Free player, recorded as guest with the LJCO in 1995 – as did Crispell. On Dakryon, he contributes a concluding less-than-two minute percussion solo and on one track with just Guy. However, the most noteworthy trio outing is the almost 19½-minute title track which appends pre-recorded sounds to improvisations.

Beginning with sonorous bass plucks, spiccato swells and lower-case drum rumbles, “Dakryon” expands into swirling interface from Homburger, harder and stronger pizzicato pulls from Guy and rattling and extruded accents from Favre. With pre-recorded chiming accents ornamented with percussion and a near Middle-Eastern interlude of bowed and vibrated double bass notes, the fiddler then contemplatively sounds the melody as ring modulator gong-like signals multiply. Eventually faint drum thumps help bring the ethereal extensions to a logical conclusion.

Favre’s multi-timbral drum kit augmentation allow him to rattle bells, shake cymbals and bounce snares behind Guy’s measured, almost lute-like rasgueado bass work on “Peace Piece”. Impressionistic, Favre’s sympathetic mallet work frames the bassist’s chromatic plucks so that each note echo is like a thrust with a finely honed dagger – incisive, but with no jagged edges.

Much of the CD’s remaining time is taken up by Homburger or Homburger and Guy performing works by two 17th century composers, Bohemian H. I. F. Biber (1644-1704) and Venetian Dario Castello (? - 1658). Biber, whose work was also recorded by the two on Ceremony (ECM), is best-known for his so-called Mystery Sonatas from about 1676, five of which are handled here.

Those compositions, plus other baroque inventions by Castello, take advantage of the violinist’s exquisite tone and phrasing. Legato mostly, staccato and spiccato sometimes, Homburger does more than replicate the proper harmonies. Taking advantage of the composers’ demand for scordatura or re-tuning, she brings a semi-mystical emotionalism to the pieces. True to 17th century basso continuo, Guy interweaves distinctive harmonies, both arco and pizzicato, which reflect his contemporary mindset as well as appropriate baroque techniques.

Moving from the 17th to the 21st century, Oort – Entropy shows how the bassist gives all his soloists and ensemble scope to spontaneously expand past customary boundaries. This is where a cross-section of experiences and cultures comes into play, since nearly every improviser is a veteran from a different country.

Parker and Lytton’s long-time trio-mate, Londoner Evan Parker is featured on tenor and soprano saxophones. The other reeds are Swiss bass clarinetist Hans Koch, who collaborates with numerous other free improvisers, and Swedish tenor and baritone saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, who is part of the GUSH trio with percussionist Raymond Strid, also featured here. Gustafsson and Swedish tubaist Per Åke Holmlander are part of Peter Brötzmann’s Tentet. German trombonist Johannes Bauer has played with everyone from Brötzmann to Australian violinist Jon Rose, while American trumpeter/flugelhornist Herb Robertson is now a member of drummer Gerry Hemingway’s quartet. Taking over BGO’s all-important piano chair from Crispell is Catalan Augustí Fernánderz, who has recorded with players as different in concept as reedist Parker and American bassist William Parker.

All stars are all right for a jam session, but it’s Guy’s framework which gives the 10 a structure within to operate. Especially when the pianist is most energetic, the performance relates to some of Cecil Taylor’s efforts with big bands. Other large groups brought to mind are Count Basie’s New Testament band – for the riffing saxes – Stan Kenton’s most jazz-like ensembles – for the flaunted brass passages – and most definitely Charles Mingus’ The Black and the Sinner Lady band, in the way the bass-lead ensemble leaps from dissonance to relaxation.

Nonetheless there are also plenty of surprises on tap as the three-part suite uncoils. True, Parker shows off his near-patented circular breathing, but there’s a point in “Part II”, where his introduction is positively Lesterian – as in Lester Young. Fernánderz may strum arpeggios and chord edgy tremolos, but he’s also capable of an andante fantasia, constant cadenzas and clinking single-notes.

Besides braying triplets, Robertson adds half-valve, hunting horn sonics that meld with penetrating tuba pedal tones. Plus the penultimate minutes of “Part III” feature Lytton and Strid eschewing their previous roles as colorists for a wholesale double drum volley, alive with paradiddles, rebounds and ruffs, as the horns blast vamps around them. Do you think they individually owned the famous Rich vs. Roach LP?

Koch’s individualistic slurs and snorts give the exposition many of its colors, suspended on top of buzzing notes and stop time emphasis from the brass. Meanwhile altissimo blusters or contrapuntal bass tones from the tuba depict the tincture of the final section.

All and all though, among the polyphonic interludes, Bauer emerges as the most consistently invigorating soloist. Like many post-Roswell Rudd stylists, he has one foot in the early gutbucket tradition and the other in post-modern New music. Balanced solidly by Guy’s architecturally-solid tonal centres that allow each instrument to be heard, he ascends with a series of buzzing and barking textures to a legato chromatic solo, then just as briskly drips burred notes one at a time as he descends the scale.

Depending on whether you want your Guy in a miniature setting or piloting a large, integrated ensemble, either CD – or both – can satisfy.

September 12, 2005

EVAN PARKER’S ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC ENSEMBLE

Memory/Vision
ECM 1852

Accelerating involvement in electro-acoustic creations has characterized one of British saxophonist Evan Parker’s many activities since the mid-1990s.

Parker, whose more than 35 year career has involved membership in groups ranging from massive big bands to two matchless improv trios, and who helped create the solo saxophone recital, has mastered a different genre with this CD.

In its parameters and evocation, this 70-minute plus continuous performance, commissioned by a British contemporary music festival, amplifies the reedist’s partnerships and conceptions. Performed by a nonet, two of the players -- bassist Barry Guy and percussionist Paul Lytton -- are Parker collaborators of decades standing and combine in one of his long constituted trios. Two others -- British/Ugandan violinist Philipp Wachsmann and Spanish pianist Augustí Fernández have worked with Parker in duo and larger group situations, both electronic an acoustic. Parker and Guy alone have recorded with Lawrence Casserley who mans the signal processing equipment here; while computer sound processor Joel Ryan has worked with Parker and French bassist Joëlle Léandre, another Parker associate. Italians Walter Prati on electronics and sound processing and Marco Vecchi on electronics have participated in the saxist’s other electro-acoustic sessions.

On this CD, both the drummer and violinist sport electronic enhancements to their instruments; Fernández plays prepared as well as regular piano, and the saxophonist himself adds tapes and samples to his emblematic circular breathing and freak effects.

With five acoustic instrumentalists and four machine manipulators, it’s to Parker’s credit that the performance doesn’t take on the sort of mechanical sheen of some Continental electro-acoustic sessions. Then again, with the players masters of extended techniques, unexpected sounds are par for the course on Parker-led dates.

Contrapuntal and polyphonic, the sound streams reach a climax starting at mid point. Counter to the busy movements within the piano and from spiccato strings, the reedist comes up with a whistling, almost flute-like timbre that accelerates from single puffs. Meantime the strings produce dissonant tones that rotate and separate into partials. Around those, ejaculating sine waves curve so that the entity takes on the character of a large, stable church organ.

Repetitive reed cadences flutter across the scene, augmented to saxophone section volume by looped samples. Soon the multiplying saxes subdivide still further into duos, trios and quartets, as one -- the live Parker -- brushes aside exploding echoes for a distinctive ostinato. As all this downshifts to silence, plucked and scraped bass and violin lines -- extended with processing -- join with the soprano to float on top of dynamically vibrated note clusters from the prepared piano. Spinning every which way among reed and string textures, Fernández pummels cascading harmonies into a powerful solo of staggered chords and ghostly string runs.

Pushing and thrusting deeper into its innards, creating unfathomable broken timbres, the pianist is accompanied by a hollow pop from Lytton’s snare and plucked and scraped strings that circle him like vultures. Now electronically produced fuzz from the cymbals melds with the massed pizzicato strings that too are extended with processing -- producing a multiplicity of scraped and abrasive tones. Suddenly, backed only by Lytton, Parker re-enters the fray with a polyphonic counterline that moves up the scale in mini bleats, neighs and slurs. Eventually focused pings and percussive ruffs from Lytton are joined by rumbled crashes from the piano innards, which sound as if an aluminum pie plate has been heaved on top of the strings.

Building up to a crescendo with more aviary sounds than Alfred Hitchcock imagined for “The Birds”, Parker’s irregular vibrations appear never-ending as they’re joined by high frequency piano overtones than processed side bands of what in other circumstances could be brass. Now the electronica, which has been threateningly understated before this, takes centre stage -- sound-wise -- as the miasmic colors burst into reverberating, sine wave crashes, tubular bell-like textures and scours processed from anything strung. For the finale, Fernández introduces double counterpoint, breaking up his contrasting dynamics as the meshed arco violin and double bass output turns muted. Parker breathes a final distinctive circular tone to silence.

Digressions on all these strategies occupy the beginning of “Memory/Vision” as well, with preparations, piano rumble, ponticello strings and slurred reed trills following one another or inflating to curt controlling textures. Grainy, grating timbres predominate over smooth themes however.

Memorable in its cohesiveness and melding of both electronic and acoustic elements, MEMORY/VISION proves that Parker and company can twist any sort of output to fit their requirement. Still for longtime Parkerites, there’s the feeling that fewer associates and less electricity would give him more scope for improvisation.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Part 1 2. Part 2 3. Part 3 4. Part 4 5. Part 5 6. Part 6 7. Part 7

Personnel: Evan Parker (soprano saxophone, tapes and samples); Philipp Wachsmann (violin and electronics); Augustí Fernández (piano and prepared piano); Barry Guy (bass); Paul Lytton (percussion and electronics); Joel Ryan (computer and sound processing); Lawrence Casserley (signal processing equipment); Walter Prati (electronics and sound processing); Marco Vecchi (electronics)

December 20, 2004

JOHN BUTCHER/CHRISTOPHER IRMER/AGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ

Clearings
ART.CappuccinoNet 008

Trans-European improv, CLEARINGS showcases a meeting of minds among musicians from three different countries with three distinct approaches to free music. Resulting in a substantial program of melding timbres, the CD confirms that only in a liberated musical situation like this could disparate styles meld.

As a matter of fact, if there was ever a complete misnomer, then it’s the title of the second track, “Bumpy Ride”. Here and elsewhere, the distinctive smeary trills of Britain’s John Butcher morph into wiggling irregular vibrations and join the speedy spiccato bowing of Germany’s Christoph Irmer and the dissonant, uneven note clusters of Spain’s Agustí Fernández sans bumps.

Both with classical training, pianist Fernández and violinist Irmer have recorded together before, while Irmer has also played with American bassist Dominic Duval and two of the pianist’s collaborators German bassist Peter Kowald and American flautist Jane Rigler. Fernández’s partners have ranged from American bassist William Parker to British reedist Evan Parker. Butcher who is universally acknowledged as the most important sax explorer since Parker, seems to have played with nearly everyone in improvised music from American drummer Gerry Hemingway to German synthesizer whiz Thomas Lehn.

There are no electronics in use on this session that took place in the same Hamburg studio where the Beatles recorded as Tony Sheridan’s sidemen in 1961, nor do the techniques of pop ever interfere. Instead instant compositions like “Fire Stack” are featured. Here reed key pops, tongue slaps and colored air mix it up with ponticello bowing and the literal scratching of the fiddle’s wood. Meanwhile Fernández forages in the piano innards, eventually encouraging legato glissandos to turn into straightforward harmonics -- which brings forth sibilant duck-like quacks from Butcher.

Although there are times throughout when the two traditional instruments seem headed towards a formal recital stance, extended saxophone technique gets them back into the free music arena.

Among the processes on offer are Fernández slapping and stopping the action of the piano strings, battering the keys with dynamic pressure, sounding the occasional bent note and leaping hopscotch-like over the keyboard. Irmer laterally saws away at his strings so that the tone begins to resemble that of a whining human voice. And he also creates elongated grating string pitches to accompany repeated piano arpeggios or irregularly pitched penny whistle vibrations from Butcher. As well as creating tiny, multi-note bird tweets from his soprano, the reedist at points also smears and snorts tenor sax lines.

“Siege” is a summation of many of these patterns, featuring the three polyphonically sounding out three separate but complementary lines. Measured violin harmonies, rumbling, bass piano lines and atmospheric horn honks combine with a minimum of friction.

Perhaps the summation of the trio’s work comes on the aptly-named, longest track, “Prophecy”. As Butcher’s blaring spetrofluctuation, key pops and extended grainy slurs meet Fernández’s syncopated tremolos and high frequency chording and Irmer’s staccato fiddle lines that build makes the prophecy of a Pan-European music a reality.

At least in that neck of the improv woods, that prophecy seems to have been realized.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Entrance 2 Bumpy Ride 3. Owl of Minerva 4. Mirror images 5. Siege 6. Some time ago 7. Crystal Cube 8. Traps of Silence 9. Haunted Place 10. Fire Stack 11. Prophecy 12. Fizzy Drive 13. Farewell

Personnel: John Butcher (tenor and soprano saxophones); Agustí Fernández (piano); Christoph Irmer (violin)

June 28, 2004

JANE RIGLER & AUGUSTÌ FERNÁNDEZ

Mandorla
Dewdrop Recordings DDR 002

Defined as the union of opposites, Mandorla, the Italian word for “almond”, is used adroitly in this case. An ancient symbol of two circles overlapping one another to form an almond shape, it accurately describes this short -- 46 minute -- and exceptional CD of impressive, improvisations by what should be paradoxical partners.

Flutist Jane Rigler is a woman, an American and an academic with a PhD from the University of California, San Diego in Theoretical and Experimental Studies. With a repertoire that includes complex scores by Brian Ferneyhough, Vinko Globokar, John Cage and Bruno Maderna among others, she has also explored electronics, interactive computer music and improvisation with the likes of violinist Christoph Irmer, inside-pianist Andrea Neuman and percussionist Lê Quan Ninh.

In contrast, pianist Augustí Fernández is a man, a Spaniard -- more accurately a Catalonian -- and at this point the most accomplished Iberian experimental musician. He has worked on the New music side with Irmer and Ninh among others; spread the gospel of free music in his native Barcelona with Trio Local; and recorded with full-tilt improvisers such as Americans, bassist William Parker and percussionist Susie Ibarra, plus British guitarist Derek Bailey.

On these nine pieces, presented exactly in the order in which they were recorded, Rigler and Fernández find common ground in mutual sound curiosity. Besides that, you may suspect that the flutist’s long residency in Spain, playing with different contemporary ensembles, and the pianist’s interaction with American jazzers may provide additional concordance.

Rigler may have the tones available from flute, alto flute, piccolo and voice at her disposal, but Fernández utilizes the innards of his instrument as much as its keyboard for added color. On the final track, for instance, there’s a point where he sounds out a theme on the piano keys as crashing waves of manipulated prepared strings and stops echo from its innards. Using short breaths and strangled cries, Rigler squeezes a whimpering tin whistle-like sound from her piccolo. Finally the tune ends with tones that resemble the scratches of a wire brush on cymbals.

These likely arise from the pianist’s inventions since many of the other tracks find him scraping raccoon-like from within his instrument rather than sounding proper chords. In fact, the whining, accentuated plucks he creates on “Mandorla 1-3” sound as if they’re emanating from a bluesman’s National steel guitar rather than a pianoforte. Rigler’s conception and response is an accompaniment of ocean wave suggestions, flowing in long puffs in different tempi from her horn.

Elsewhere, she vocalizes from within her instrument, producing mouth and lip clicks, quasi-orgasmic breaths, harsh metal shaking shouts and high-pitched, bird-like whistles. A Continental gentlemen cognizant of a woman’s desire, the pianist spends much of his time on many of the tracks digging out low-pitched, reverberating drones to provide the ostinato upon which she can soar, cross blow and flutter tongue. Glissandos and chords can be sounded, but the epitome of a Mandorla is cooperation, not bringing attention to oneself.

A fine duo achievement, the disc shows what two sympathetic but opposite talents can accomplish when they intersect.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Mandorla 1-1 2. Mandorla 1-2 3. Mandorla 1-3 4. Mandorla 1-4 5. Mandorla 1-5 6. Mandorla 1-6 7. Mandorla 1-7 8. Mandorla 1-8 9. Mandorla 1-9

Personnel: Jane Rigler (flute, alto flute, piccolo, voice); Augustí Fernández (piano)

March 3, 2003

TRIO LOCAL

Trio Local +
Dewdrop Recordings DDR 001

The + in the title is intentional. It’s literally a plus sign, for this CD features three of Barcelona, Spain’s most accomplished improvisers collaborating with French, German and British improvisers.

A meeting of minds -- and fingers -- this fine CD shows that Iberian improvisers can undoubtedly hold their own with players with more advanced scenes. However, it should be stressed that Trio Local, which has been together since the mid-1990s is a Catalonian rather than a Spanish group. In the northeast and near the Pyrenees, Catalonia like Quebec in Canada, sees itself as distinct from the rest of Spain. Harsher and more abrasive than their southern counterparts, Catalonians also have a history of intellectualism, organization and progressive politics. It was this area that held out against Francisco Franco’s fascists during the Spanish Civil War and relations between Barcelona and the capital, Madrid, are always a bit distant.

So it’s no surprise that go-for-broke improvisation has taken hold in that city. Best known of the players is pianist Augustì Fernández, who brings a distinct New music ethos to his playing. Within the half-decade he has recorded with such non-local experimenters as Americans, bassist William Parker and drummer Susie Ibarra plus British saxophonist Evan Parker. Sampler player Joan Saura has written music for theatre, television and dance and is also a member of the European Improvisation Orchestra with the likes of British guitarist Tim Hodgkinson. Saxophonist Liba Villavecchia, who studied at Boston’s New England Conservatory, is part of the Improvisers of Barcelona Association which organizes concerts and an annual festival plus keeping together a large orchestra.

On its own, Trio Local can hold its own with any other electroacoustic aggregation, perhaps because eof its unique instrumentation. Saura’s sampler can provide the percussive underpinning when needed or the sound of an organ or a marimba. Other times it suggests an electrical storm of thunder, cloudbursts and gusting winds. Fernández’s strings with preparations can be turned into those of a celeste, a spinet or a player piano, though those massive octave wide piano chords are all his own. Sometimes the pressure on the keys is such that you can almost hear the strings stretching. Villavecchia brings forth high-pitched, flute-like tones from his mouthpiece, a storm centre of irregular vibrato and deeper tenor saxophone tones often bisected with tongue slaps. Combining his bombshell smears and honks with the jolts produced when the pianist and sampler player fire notes like a machine gun emptying its magazine almost implies a Guernica-like battlefield soundtrack.

Just as international sympathizers were involved in the Civil War, so foreign improvisers are on hand here to interact with the Spaniards. Most distinctive is French percussionist Lê Quan Ninh, who has had long association with other Continental electroacoustic explorers. He matches the Iberian meteorological sampler sounds with some barometrical ones of his own, shaking what sounds like thunder sheets on one track and creating a Gallic hailstorm with drumstick scratching cymbals on the other. Response from his southern neighbors involves unvarying clipping piano notes and some key pops and a bit of circular breathing from the saxist.

Reflecting their countries of origin each of the bassist brings something different to the collaborations. Briton John Edwards, who has matched wits with fellow Englishmen like saxophonist Parker and pianist Veryan Weston isn’t cowed on his two improvisations with the three amigos. Rubbing his hands up and down his strings and banging the bridge with his bow he creates a powerful bass thump, then individual note plucks both in arco and pizzicato mode. The Catalans respond respectively with internal piano explorations, split tones and offcentre reed vibrations and trills and mere tinkles from Saura.

French bassist David Chiesa, who has played with inventive Gallic reedmen like Michel Doneda and Jean Luc Guionnet reverberates screeching sounds from his wire strands. Because of this bells and unselected cymbals seem to be highlighted by the piano and sampler, while Villavecchia rolls out screechy chirps and tongue slaps. Later Fernández’s sneaky patterns resolve themselves into a high frequency Pink Panther-like theme, with just pedal pressure to prove he’s playing a real piano.

German bassist Peter Jacquemyn, who is also a sculptor and works with dancers, is known for his tremendous physicality and work with two bows. But no matter what he throws at the trio, they respond the same way -- but in much more cooperative and friendlier fashion -- that the Catalonian volunteers faced German panzer divisions in the 1930s. Sometimes attacking his own instrument’s strings with sharp objects Jacquemyn produces an elongated and very low-pitched arco buzz at times and bodybuilder pizzicato stretches elsewhere, that lead to Smurf-like squeaks from his highest strings. The pianist gives no quarter, at first punching out arpeggio chords then producing flat picking strokes from the instrument’s insides. Smeary trills, dissonant growling rumbles plus key pops, tongue slaps and chirps erupt from the saxophone, with the two Catalonians creating in counterpoint to head off the German’s circular runs. Meanwhile, in the background the sampler fuzzes and fizzes.

Needless to say TRIO LOCAL + crackles with excitement. Should your knowledge of Spanish music begin and end with Julio Inglesias or SKETCHES OF SPAIN investigate this disc. Those more familiar with other Continental free improvisations will discover some dazzling work here as well.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. TL+1* 2. TL+2 3. TL+3^ 4. TL+4 5. TL+5# 6. TL+6# 7. TL+7 8. TL+8~ 9. TL+9 10. TL+10*

Personnel: Liba Villavecchia (alto and tenor saxophones); Augustì Fernández (piano); John Edwards#, Peter Jacquemyn^ or David Chiesa~ (bass); Lê Quan Ninh (percussion)*; Joan Saura (sampler)

January 27, 2003

DEREK BAILEY/AGUSTÌ FERNÁNDEZ

Barcelona
Hopscotch Records HOP 10

Excessive intellectualism is one of the most common properties ascribed to completely improvised music like this. Especially if, as on this duo CD, it involves experienced European virtuosi such as Spanish pianist Augustí Fernández and British guitarist and elder statesman of the genre, Derek Bailey.

But, while the collective biographies of the two encompass experience in contemporary classical music, dance band sounds, studio pop and most definitely jazz, a cozy duo session like this one could be linked to an earlier tradition. Performing together in a Barcelona studio, aren’t Fernández and Bailey expressing themselves in a so-called folkloric way? Bringing experience and mother wit into play as each deals with the other’s techniques and inspirations, they appear to be following early urban blues partnerships such as pianist Georgia Tom and guitarist Tampa Red or pianist Leroy Carr and guitarist Scrapper Blackwell.

Obviously, unlike those 1930s sessions, there are no vocals here, and the selections last much longer than a 78’s three minute running time -- “Casa Leopoldo” alone is 23 minutes plus -- yet the excitement and honest sense of discovery is common. In contrast to today’s neo-cons, in fact, these so-called primitive bluesmen would probably not be shocked by the Europeans’ unorthodox methodology either. They evolved new ways if playing their instruments, just as those involved in EuroImprov have.

On “Senyor Parellada”, for instance, the pianist’s ripe tremolos often suggest that he’s creating 21st Century boogie-woogie, which Jelly Roll Morton said had to have “that Spanish tinge” anyway. Meanwhile, Bailey’s flat picking can be heard as an extension of Swing band sounds. Percussive in his bass string forays, the guitarist uses minimal amplification and tinctures of feedback to attenuate his ideas. Often preferring to stroke the portion of he strings beneath the bridge and on the fretboard than the instrument’s centre, he invites the pianist to match tones, sending Fernández to use the piano’s harp-like internal strings or produce an atonal staccato keyboard gliss.

The 23-plus-minute centrepiece even finds Fernández, whose playing partners have included saxophonist Evan Parker, bassist William Parker and drummer Susie Ibarra, aping player piano tones. At times the keyboard sounds as if it’s a harpsichord or a spinet, while Bailey chugs along with banjo-like flailing. A bit too long, the piece resolves itself as the pianist leans on the pedals to unleash a string symphony of smashes, wheezes and internal rumbling. Elsewhere, though, on “7 Portes”, for instance, constant arpeggios characterize Fernández’s touch as resounding fervor threatens to take over the entire sound space. Bailey’s wavering lines sometime make it appear that he’s wielding a bottleneck guitar, until he produce ear-splitting feedback as his side of the equation.

Then there’s “Esterri”, the fastest and shortest number on the disc. Bailey’s unqualified rhythm guitar strokes and the pianist’s super staccato and super quick patterns amplified with the sustain pedal, almost transform the two into country dance musicians. Powerful enough to impel committed high steppers across a floor, a variation of the music could have been produced by barrelhouse specialists 90 years ago whose steady cadence encouraged bushed sawmill workers to shuffle along all night.

With empiricism, intelligence and technical proficiency, Bailey and Fernández have created a highly functional set of music that in its context is as free, welcoming and understandable as blues piano-guitar duets were in their time. It’s certainly a disc that will be sought after by fans of either of the two men, and interested others.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Senyor Parellada 2. Botafumerio 3. Esterri 4. Casa Leopoldo 5. 7 Portes 6. Medulio

Personnel: Derek Bailey (guitar); Augustí Fernández (piano)

October 7, 2002

AUGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ/WILLIAM PARKER

2nd Set
Radical Records M PE 047

AUGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ/CHRISTOPH IRMER

Ebro Delta

Hybrid CD 18

Every day it seems, impressive improvising musicians are appearing in places most North Americans don’t associate with innovative sounds or even modern music. Appearing, of course is a relative term. In cases like this the “appearance” isn’t any more a description than our concept of Columbus “discovering” the New World, which had existed for many previous millennia.

Pianist Augustí Fernández, 47, for instance, a resident of Barcelona, Spain, has been a professional since he was 13, under the acknowledged influence of one American and one European model: Cecil Taylor and Iannis Xenakis. In the years since 1985 he has recorded at least a dozen CDs and worked with musicians as different as saxophonist Evan Parker, cellist France-Marie Uitti, Butoh dancer Andrés Corchero and a local improvising vocal group. Reflecting his bifurcated regimen, these two accomplished CDs pinpoint both sides of his pianistic conception.

Fernández first played with ubiquitous bassist William Parker in New York in 1997, and recorded with him and drummer Susie Ibarra in Barcelona the following year. More than a follow up, 2ND SET is both an intensification and an expansion of that trio meeting.

Divided between two massive -- almost 25 minute and more than 32 minute -- improvisations with a fleet interlude separating them, the disc finds the pianist in his most weighty free jazz role. Confining himself mostly to the bass region and bottom notes of the instrument -- and heavy on the sustain pedal -- his constant keystrokes can remind you of a building orgasm, waiting for release.

“Part I” finds Parker stroking his bass strings with similar intensity, as his bow thrusts push the pianist closer to the edge, exposing a forward motion that soon has him ranging all over the keyboard. Echoing overtones that range from bass to treble soon begin to suggest other sounds like dense electronics as well as different chordal instruments with what could be as a whimsical harpsichord pluck or a pedal steel guitar whine. Later, as Parker moves from scratching out arco cello parts to creating guitar-like strums with his bass, Fernández climaxes by rubbing and manipulating the piano’s strings until both musicians are spent and satisfied.

Following the interlude, “Part II” -- which is the same length of many 1960s’ LPs -- is even more intense. Proving that he’s ambidextrous as well as multi-functional, Fernández at times appears to be advancing two -- or sometimes three (!) -- themes simultaneously. As light and airy as “Part I” was dark and dank, the pianist begins playing so quickly that the wood of the piano practically echoes. Not thought of as the retiring type, the bassist usual Herculean plucks are practically rendered inaudible by Fernández’s efforts. Displaying his mettle, Parker eventually signals the piece’s conclusion with some high-pitched, metallic bowing.

If 2ND SET exposes the so-called American side of Fernández’s improvisations, then EBRO DELTA, recorded more than two years earlier, showcases his purported European persona. If his playing is thick and note-crammed with Parker, here it’s roomier, more expansive and intentionally hesitant. A shorter disc than the first, it’s also divided among 13 tracks -- most in the one, two and three minute range.

Also, as opposed to Parker, a free jazz maven since the late-1970s, who is best-known for his work with Cecil Taylor, David S. Ware and his own large and small bands, classically trained Christoph Irmer, a native of Wuppertal, Germany, has only been improvising since the early 1990s.

Still his use of unconventional techniques have helped him make up for lost time and since then he has been a member of bassist Peter Kowald’s Ort-Ensemble, and recorded with guitar torturer Hans Tammen, bassist Dominic Duval, and percussionist Jay Rosen.

Collaborating in the language of scratches and scrapes, the pianist and violinist approach the shorter tunes similarly with sharp, machine-like runs from the keyboard and extended, jagged arco gashes from the fiddle. Sometimes you can imagine the two as mechanized robots, performing in a sci-fi chamber recital on Planet X.

Only “Was da im Wasser blinkt”, which melds dancing piano patterns and straightforward, almost 19th century bowing from Irmer produces a different sort of duet, as do the CD’s two longest pieces.

“Fire Animals Laughing Creeping Screaming”, with its English, rather than German title and lasting a little more than 10 minutes could be heard as the complete score for a short ballet mechanique. With Irmer reverberating more than one string at a time, Fernández responds by diving hands-first into the piano bowels, producing harp

sonorities. When Irmer turns high-hatish and begins to play a short, sprightly melody, the pianist dons his aural clown’s costume and begins crashing and banging on the reverberating strings and keys. Merely touching the string with his bow, the violinist then creates something analogous to a saxophonist’s pitch vibrato, encouraging both players to create a series of piercing tones that sound like nails whistling as they’re being pulled along unyielding metal.

Even more extensive and totaling more than at 12½ minutes, the four-part “Suite in D” comes across as a parody of oh-so-pretentious Mittel European chamber concerts, with the duo’s presentation resembling a knife fight more than a courtly fencing session.

From the beginning, when the two seem to take turns banging on the sides of their respective instruments as often as they sound the strings, they manage to musically move the suite frontward as they mock it. “Adagio morbido” is just that, oozed out so morbidly slowly that the notes appear to be so nearly motionless that they’re almost stillborn. “Furioso” must relate more to haste than anger, since the violinist, especially, creates speedy bowed lines, that are occasionally interrupted by the occasional finger pluck. In the finale Fernández appears to be reaching inside the piano to pluck strings as well, as he and Irmer move from arco (well, touch, in the pianist’s case) to pizzicato and back again. Gathering his strength the pianist ends the piece with a crashing heavy note, only to have the violinist get in the last word -- er, note -- with a final yank.

As demonstrated by these CDs, Fernández, like his countryman Picasso, can create in different modes, with the texture and color varying with the mood and situation. Both sessions are worth investigation, with your choice depending on your particular preferences. Maybe you’d like both.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 2nd: 1. Second Set Part I 2. Interlude 3. Second Set Part II

Personnel: 2nd: Agustí Fernández (piano); William Parker (bass)

Track Listing: Ebro:1 Hartes Gestein 2. Vögel in Pappeln gehen schlafen 3. Barceló 4. Fire Animals Laughing Creeping Screaming 5. Was da im Wasser blinkt 6. Luxury 7. La casa del piano 8. Suite in D: Allegro 9. Suite in D: Adagio morbido 10. Suite in D: Furioso 11. Suite in D: Finale 12. Halbschlaftraum (nach der Siesta) 13. Was geschehen ist (Erinnerung/Coda)

Personnel: Ebro: Christoph Irmer (violin); Agustí Fernández (piano)

January 1, 2002