Natalio Sued/Rafael Vanoli/Gerri Jaeger

Mats Gustafsson/John Russell/Raymond Strid
Birds
Den 008

Vinz Vonlanthen/Christophe Berthet/Cyril Bond
Silo
Leo Records CD LR 638

How to come up with a group sound that’s expansive yet compact is a challenge for committed musicians, especially when economics enter the picture. Stand-alone trios are pretty much a universal solution, especially when dealing with the financial vagaries of playing experimental music. Extra-musical considerations aside, the obvious reason the trios here use this combination of reeds, guitar and percussion is that it provides each with the necessary textures for a full program. That said none of the bands and CDs could be remotely confused with any other.

Take Birds for instance. The aviary participants creating extended reductionist sounds and gestures are veterans. British guitarist John Russell has played with many EuroImprovisers, including saxophonist Evan Parker and sound-singer Jean Michel Van Schouwburg; while the others, Swedes, saxophonists Mats Gustafsson and drummer Raymond Strid, are not only two-thirds of the band Gush, but singly have worked with most of the continent’s major improvisers. Arriving from an opposite perspective is Amsterdam-based Opistor. Imbued with the power and pressure of Rock music they’re a trio of younger improvisers. Argentine tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Natalio Sued, who is also a member of The Ambush Party; Innsbruck-born drummer Gerri Jaeger, who works with stylists like trombonist Wolter Wierbos as well as being part of the avant-rock band Knalpot with Opistor’s third member, French-German guitarist Rafael Vanoli. Somewhere in the middle in terms of sound is the Swiss trio featured on Silo, which mixes Free Music with understated electronics. Consisting of alto saxophonist/clarinetist Christophe Berthet and guitarist Vinz Vonlanthen, who together perform as Effet Papillon, this combo is completed by the percussion and objects of Cyril Bond who also leads the Insub Meta Orchestra.

This middle path extends to the 13 performances on Silo, with Berthet’s reed lines in particular running the gamut from raucous to rounded and reasonable. On a low-urgency track such as “Crépusculaire” his clarinet tone is a straight-ahead as one would expect from Benny Goodman, although distinctively backed by Bond’s popping resonations; on the subsequent “Complainte alpestre” his saxophone lines vibrate with the inventiveness of an Evan Parker while Vonlanthen chords powerfully and the drummer upsets the narrow narrative with shattering pulses. Other tunes are rife with granularly synthesized crackles and cracks and reverb emanating from Bond’s objects and distorted guitar lines. While tracks like “Astéroïde” and “Cyanogène” may have enough hard, honking staccato slurs from the saxophonist, snaky chromatic crunches from Vonlanthen and hard rubbed timbres from Bond to move Silo closer to Opistor territory, other pieces trade detonation for dryness. Multiphonic reed warbles, whining strings plus aluminum foil-like percussion crumbles presage the hushed “Chimere”. Reductionist by definition that tunes arches and descends with studied vulnerability. The track combines temple bell-like resonations, dangling string accents and reed buzzes which climax with tongue slaps.

Tongue slaps are present along with snake-charmer-like trills, split tones and brief textural respiration from Gustafsson’s soprano saxophone on Birds. But the results may surprise anyone familiar with the saxman’s stentorian baritone work in bands like The Thing and Fire. Nonetheless as the session evolves, he apparently can’t control himself any longer. During the final sequence of “The Earth as the Sun and the Ravens Are Watching” and its barely 4½ minute coda, Gustafsson lets loose with scads of pent-up glossolalia. Overall however the hushed puffs and swallowed vibrations he mostly exposes here are perfectly in character with the lower-case improvising in which Russell specializes. For Strid, whose other affiliations include collaborations with restrained players such as bassists Joëlle Léandre and Barry Guy, muting his percussive overlay is no hardship. Throughout, his occasional cymbal vibrations, intermittent rim shots or rolls and sporadic clanks, clicks and rattles are limited to underline the aleatory motions of the others. Alternately, while the guitarist’s usual forté may revolve around a delicate narrative birthed from spidery licks, finger-styled clicks and stretched atonal strums, Russell’s playing turns as unexpectedly tough at points as the saxophonist’s is tender elsewhere. When Gustafsson lets loose with vocalized multiphonics at the first track’s climax for instance, Russell parries his thrust with crunching rhythmic picking, guitar-string serrated strums below the bridge and up the guitar neck. The finale finds the saxophonist expelling squeaking timbres that are almost identical to Russell’s bulky strokes before the two divide their solos into more expected staccato honks and discordant strums.

From the opposite side of the sound field no one lays back on Opistor. Jaeger’s rumbles are hard and heavy; Vanoli’s string slides and amp buzzes mixed with cohesive improvisation appears to aim for a spot where Ted Nugent meets Derek Bailey; and as for Sued, not only does he smear altissimo tones throughout his solos, but his strident reed textures on “Barbarie Capatilista” could only be described as coming from a Heavy Metal clarinetist. That concept is original in itself, but the drawback on the CD is that many of the 11 tracks fasten too fixedly on this formula. Every guitar lick doesn’t have to scream, every horn timbre doesn’t have to explode, nor does every drum beat have to echo with rhythmic overload.

That’s the reason tracks like “Paisajes Argentinos” and “Walking to Brooklyn” impress. The latter is an almost straight Swing number with walking bass lines courtesy of Vanoli, rolls and ruffs in binding counterpoint from Jaeger and high-pitched reed chirps descending to sliding tones on Sued’s part. Even better is “Paisajes Argentinos”, whose length gives the three enough space in which to define formula variations. With an exposition unexpectedly nimble and buoyant, the guitarist and clarinetist figure out a way to balance their timbres without abandoning sharp reed bites and resonating string snaps. With Jaeger’s hand drumming equally rhythmic, the three climax with a moderato ending, helped along by quivering oscillations plus metallic clanks and shakes.

Each of these ensembles is notable in its own way, with the Swiss threesome seemingly most comfortable with the collective ethos it presents. The Swedish-British combination may alter if this one-off meeting is to continue, whereas the Amsterdam-based trio must come to grips with how to moderate its style without losing its visceral excitement. Since Opistor, the CD, was recorded over four years ago though, the members may already have done so. Further developments from all will demand attention.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Opistor: 1. Do, dici? 2. Fragments 3. Dialogues 4. Barbarie Capatilista Cortazar’s Suite: 5. Los venenos 6. La banda 7. Final del jeugo 8. Zamba Satie 9. Paisajes Argentinos 10. Walking to Brooklyn 11. Rock, nena

Personnel: Opistor: Natalio Sued (tenor saxophone and clarinet); Rafael Vanoli (guitars and effects) and Gerri Jaeger (drums and accessories)

Track Listing: Birds: 1. The Earth As The Sun And The Ravens Are Watching 2. The Birds. They Fly As They Want, Don’t They?

Personnel: Birds: Mats Gustafsson (soprano and baritone saxophones); John Russell (guitar) and Raymond Strid (drums)

Track Listing: Silo: 1. Présage 2. Alcatraz 3. Brest 4. 7h13 5. Crépusculaire; 6. Complainte alpestre 7. Astéroïde 8. Microcosme 9. Passage 10. Animal Song 11. Cyanogène 12. Durch Berlin 13. Chimere

Personnel: Silo: Christophe Berthet (alto saxophone and clarinet); Vinz Vonlanthen (guitar) and Cyril Bond (drums, percussion and objects)