Floridis/Bauer/Hertenstein

Still innovating at 72, veteran Greek reedist Floros Flordis has created this 11-track program of abstract improvisation with the same zeal and confidence he’s exhibited since he recorded Greece’s first free jazz LP in 1979. On Temporal Driftness he’s joined by slightly younger players, bassist Matthias Bauer and percussionist Joe Hertenstein in Berlin, where he now lives.

Floridis, who also composes film music, and the others, make each of the tracks as distinctive as individual movie scenes. Overall they harmonize enough to make the equivalent of a feature film.  Moving among clarinet, bass clarinet and alto saxophone he’ll frequently mate chalumeau register bass clarinet tones with double bass thumps to toughen the low pitch textures of the improvisations. Elsewhere squeaky bites from one of the higher-pitched reeds amplify Bauer’s clenched arco slides. Meanwhile Hertenstein adds tom-tom slaps, bass drum pounding or cymbal scratches accenting the unrolling sound picture.

Some of the most spectacular scenes occur as Floridis alternates his actorly persona as on “Drift 7” where his continuous flutters move from arched trills to strained honks and double-tongued bites with the timbres surrounded by the bassist’s spiccato buzzes and the drummer measured patter. A track like “Drift 3” on the other hand abstracts the thematic scenario further and faster connecting comb-and-tissue paper-like reed strains, string strops and boiling drum ruffs.

As cinema this CD wouldn’t be standard popcorn fare, but would be appealing as well-wrought experimental film making.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Drift 1 2. Drift 2 3. Drift 3 4. Drift 4 5. Drift 5  6. Drift 6 7. Drift 7 8. Drift 8 9. Drift 9 10. Drift 10 11 Drift 11

Personnel:  Floros Floridis (clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone); Matthias Bauer (bass) and Joe Hertenstein (drums and percussion)

–for The Whole Note April & May 2025