EUPHORIUM freakestra (feat Wadada Leo Smith/Barre Phillips)

Free Acoustic Supergroup is a truth-in-packaging two-CD souvenir of Leipzig’s 2009 EUPHORIUM festival. It’s accurate because 10 creative musicians who make up this freakestra are improvisers from Germany: keyboardist Oliver Schwerdt, trumpeter Axel Dörner, spoken word artist Friedrich Kettlitz, alto saxophonist Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky and drummers Christian Lillinger and Günter ‘Baby’ Sommer; Switzerland: bassist Michael Haves and soprano/tenor saxophonist Urs Leimgruber; and the US: bassist Barre Phillips and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith.

With duplicate instruments paired it’s sometimes difficult to tell who exactly is playing. But interactive strategies make up for this. However Kettlitz’s murmuring recitations and dramatic patter is lost on non-German speakers, while Schwerdt, mostly limits himself to harmonious comping or fitful distinctive note interjections. As for the others it’s probably Petrowsky’s ferocious reed-biting, altissimo split tones, and siren-like squeals that splatter all over the tracks, at points interacting with Smith’s brassy bugling, bright triplets or portamento ripples. Both emphasize jazz as well as free jazz. More attuned to insolent near-static free music tones, Leimgruber’s reed exploration involves strained multiphonics, spetrofluctuation and thin buzzes, while Dörner nearly muffled shakes and excavating half-valve explorations often suggest tones rather than play them. Only in the final sequences do the bassists move forward, but then the low-pitched resonations divided between angled and allegro string plunks and melodious and moderated arco resonations arise from both. Similarly both drummers are experts in sourcing aggressive rolling thunder from their kits’ rims, bass drums and taut tops, often augmenting mewling reed smears or stuttering brass breaths to attain multiphonic expression. It’s surely waggish Sommer though who adds an array of distinctive noises from bell chiming to plastic toy squeaks to further disrupt but ultimately animate the proceedings.

Since track titles are sometimes longer than the length of the tracks, it’s pointless to single out individual ones. No matter how you name it, the set contains creative, cohesive almost swinging improv of high quality.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: CD1: 1. Im Strahlen der Trabanten 2. Spridriger Feuertunkel,Taffft! 3. Globalhirtenrider: Eyes & Gliss 4. Streichprafater, Zug von Zungenstuhli 5. Graben jetzt!, alle auf nach Stoirihondur, neun kleine Feten geh’n… 6. Versandete Trompeten 7. Zarte Klaster druber Winde ‘steh’n (Quintett No. 1) 8. Conference At Olli’s (Black Music GDR) CD2: 1. Am Baustrand 2. Briedwaht, Kleiheuer, Stuff(Zeitungszeugen lesen heuer Korner) 3. 2 Trios In The Street (Microphistical Klee derRaben) 4. Throughout The New Mississippi Freedom Train, Mister Borgenthal Jumps Into The Rhythm Of Tastoraster In Gloria, Calms Down And Finally Vanishes 5. Chiclin Berago (von Axelleo da Schmidt-Wodarner) 6. Garten Ruben oben, Stoirihondurando zehn 7. Langer Brueder Feitendarm? (American Successfully Amplified) 8. Klonkern, wieder Ulmanach 9. Morning Hours Without Rice, But Rice (Haschbender Russenkatze) 10. End Of the Night, Enlighted Days Beyond (The Golden Trio’s Todeshymne) 11. Orgel-Laib am Bein

Personnel: Axel Dörner and Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet); Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky (alto saxophone); Urs Leimgruber (soprano and tenor saxophones); Oliver Schwerdt (piano, organ, percussion, little instruments); Barre Phillips and Michael Haves (bass); Christian Lillinger and Günter ‘Baby’ Sommer (drums) and Friedrich Kettlitz (voice)