Bröndum-Miura-Gärdin

Blind to
Pillars of Creation  (Part 1)
RAT 063

Electronic impulses are now such an accepted part of creative music, that the inclusion of synthesizers, computers and other plugged-in hardware is hardly novel. However except for a few breakthroughs, the most striking instances of electronics used in free improvisation link the machine (s) to acoustic instruments. Realization of this joint concept is what makes these sessions so notable.

Multinational and intergenerational, the trio and quartet here match processing sophistication with instrumental ingenuity. Blind to is working group consisting of Belgians, drummer Teun Verbruggen and pianist Bram De Looze, German-American saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and Japanese electronics manipulator Ikue Mori, Between them the musicians have worked with stylist as unique as Stian Westerhus, Joey Baron, Kris Davis and Satoko Fujii. Meanwhile Live at Fylkingen features Japanese Yoko Miura, who has recorded with Gianni Mimmo, playing piano and melodica, and two Swedes, who often work as a duo, academic and composer Lars Bröndum, who uses a laptop and Theremin, and saxophonist Per Gärdin, also part of the Aleatoric Chamber Ensemble among other configurations.

Operating with a bedrock knowledge of Free Jazz and Free music as well as programmed requirements, the quartet succinctly balances binary expression and whizzing or reflective oscillations with breathy reed explorations, piano gentling or pressure and drum motifs that encompass understated taps or upfront pounding depending on the circumstances.

Mostly, as on a track like “Lockman Hole” what begins with gentle reed flutters and refined tick-tock drumming is soon thickened with pronounced electronic fuzz and speedy piano pumps until reed snarls and split tones plus continuous drum ruffs combine textures to foreground speed and sonority.

Elsewhere the group interplay assimilates wiggling space ship launching sounds, ring modulator pealing , sudden voltage explosions and splayed oscillation within horizontal  expanses usually directed by measured piano pressure and undulating saxophone smears. Paced within the textural elaborations, Verbruggen’s cadences range from implement spinning on drum tops to what could be electronic induced clatters. Still, relaxed shuffles and rolls contribute to affirming isolated lyrical passages as on “Bary Center”.

A respite from tongue shredding reed split tone and drum tom tom stress prominent elsewhere is the final “Quirm College”, which is mostly a Verbruggen-Laubrock two-hander with languid De Looze comping. Moving from a balladic groove to superfast reed stops and slurs, the drummer’s subsequent splashes and rolls create needed variation and a conclusive circle that presages sound completion.

While even more abstract and abstruse, the live trio session isn’t reductive when compared to the quartet disc. That’s because Bröndum’s  electronics and Theremin processes add any missing percussive oscillation as well as the bustle of synthesized and distended whizzes and whooshes to the mix. Miura too varies her piano progression from refined note-knitting and regularized sweeps to pedal point pounding and keyboard slaps. Mostly though piano comping makes common cause with Gärdin’s reed fluctuations that take in note bending, stutters, bleats and brief circular breathing. With moxie expressed more often than melody, reed stretches maintain a few kernels of creative improvisation.

Anciliaett whistling peeps from the pianist’s melodica add some needed buoyant textures those times when the synthesized rachets and rustles from sax overblowing create a near opaqueness which must be cut through by more than piano dings. Aggression tempered with affiliations outlines the rational behind the two extended improvisations. Crucially the end product includes linearity as well as varied timbral locution.

Unlike AI domination which some figure will end up negating hum input, improvisers crafty modifications of programmed impulses posit a pleasanter electro-acoustic adaptation – and, on the examples here, better music.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Pillars: 1. Hasya 2. Windle Poons 3. Miss Flitworth 4. Vira 5. Bary Center 6. Raudra 7. Lockman Hole 8. Shringar 9. Quirm College

Personnel: Pillars: Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone); Bram De Looze (piano); Teun Verbruggen (drums) and Ikue Mori (electronics)
Track Listing: Live: 1. Interaction 1 2, Interaction 2

Personnel: Live: Per Gärdin (soprano and alto saxophones); Yoko Miura (piano and melodica) and Lars Bröndum (live electronics and Theremin)