Last Dream of the Morning

A commanding instance of near faultless creative music, Sharp Illusion posits sounds from three veteran UK improvisers interacting at the height of their powers. Tenor/soprano saxophonist John Butcher, bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders have been seizing and projecting the moment for decades and do so again without a hint of artifice or angst. Singly or together bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders have been the rhythmic engine for numerous creative music groups, alongside everyone from Joe McPhee and Paul Dunmeell to Gabriele Mitelli and Frank Paul Schubert. As engaged in the front line as the others have been in the back, Butcher’s immense number of playing partners have encompassed newcomers and pioneers including John Russell, Eddie Prévost, Florian Stoffner and dieb13.

Subtle string bowing and carefully timed percussion clangs adumbrate the tone-twisting slurs and snorty tongue slaps from the saxophonist as he slowly moulds textures into a broken octave display of hard stops and split tones, before finally descending to singular peeps and tongue slaps. The seesaw between raucous and reticent is perfected throughout the four selections.

The trio sums up the interface with a concluding sequence of tandem rhythmic tones. It also consistently develops themes with group melds that knit together intense rim top taps and cymbal crashes; low-pitched string pulses; and inner horn yelps resolved as reed choruses. This blend is expanded exponentially during the almost 28 minute “Movable Bridge”. Sophistically balancing turbulence and tranquility, the three augment textures from slow moving crackles and stops to louder aggressive thrusts. At the same time bass-and-drums underpinnings anchor Butcher’s improvisational flights to broken chord evolution. As interludes ascend from andante to vivace to presto tempos, focused string tolling and drum top shakes moderate querulous split tones for a climax that’s as meditative as it is multiphonic.

The subsiding finale of that track not only foreshadows the melded spiky conclusion, appropriately titled “Afterglow”, but also confirms Butcher, Edwards and Sanders’ adaptable invention in (m)any circumstances.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing:  1. Roof Rattle 2. Turning The Soil 3. Movable Bridge 4. Afterglow

Personnel: John Butcher (tenor and soprano saxophones); John Edwards (bass) and Mark Sanders (drums)