Niran Dasika

Taylor/Avice/Stewart
Deep in the Earth High in the Sky
Rogueart ROG-147

Trumpet and rhythm section affiliations here have antithetical notions to achieve tonal blends despite sessions of comparable length and with almost identical instrumentation. The seven Life Forms revealed on Australian trumpeter/piccolo trumpeter Niran Dasika’s come across as atmospheric and relaxed, in sync with fellow Melbourne-based associates bassist Helen Svoboda and pianist Andrea Keller. Meanwhile there are 12 tracks on Deep in the Earth High in the Sky, but considering the disc include three suites the interaction among French trumpeter/flugelhornist Aymeric Avice and Americans, bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Chad Taylor is aggressive and rugged.

These contrasts are of imagination not instrumentation however. The composition of Dasika, who has played with Sumire Kuribayashi and created electronic music, are impressionistic and contemplative. Plus if needed he, the pianist, who also works with players like Angela Davis and Kyrie Anderson, the bassist who has recorded with Maria Moles and Selma Savolainen can create tougher sounds. Similarly Stewart, who has worked with everyone from James Brandon Lewis to rock bands and Taylor, whose series of collaborators encompasses Lewis, Jason Stein and numerous others, can play with more finesse, as proven here, where each sounds mbiras to introduce and conclude the music. Avice, whose background includes stints with Sylvain Kassap and Christophe Monniot, also uses electronics to modify his horns’ textures. Still there no mistaking that the European disc is upfront Free Jazz, while the Antipodean one is contemplative enough to skirt microtonality.

The tonal ambiguity that results from the evocative architecture of most of Life Forms’ tracks means the trio’s broken octave evolution may involve breathy brass grace notes, understated keyboard comping and formalized arco sweeps. However tracks such as “Osmanthus Green” and “Sunless City” rely on a dedicated piano ostinato to shore up the expositions, otherwise dedicated to snaking portamento brass smears and breathy or tremorous bass string slides and slippery ascending stops from Svoboda. Elsewhere to allow sequences where Keller’s keyboard touch is delicate enough to be nearly microtonal or connective enough to cement the others’ positioned output, there’s “River Song’ where Svoboda’s string plucks create the continuum on which rests a resultant melody made up of near-vocalized trumpet breaths and keyboard variations.

Whispery without being wimpy, Dasika’s brass projections include playful squeezes, half-valve ascensions and growls as well as short trills that are exhaled as much as performed. Still his major contributions involve arching gentle tones that ripple above and color the expositions and carefully squeezed as from a toothpaste tube. “All Good Things” is an example of this as a resultant melody emerges from the trumpeter’s half-valve tremors. Bent note buzzes soon meet gentling piano tones and subtle bass stops as they work downwards to settle on a final recap of the initial theme.

Delicacy is replaced by dominance on Deep in the Earth High in the Sky as Avice blasts, splatters and drones bent notes from his horns. Tinged with live processing, his frequent triplet directed interludes are met with Stewart’s widened almost impenetrable bass string pumps and Taylor’s ruffs that together create an ambulatory groove. Bookended by the mbira-resonating tracks, the three suites allow the trio members scope for exploration,

The three parts of the “Pangea Suite’ for instance are rife with high-pitched commotion that almost attains an R&B groove, Mixing supple double bass pumps and Taylor’s tolling thumps with gritty trumpet flutters, the resulting creation moves from a crest of brassy open horn growls, percussion plops and jagged bee-buzzing string motion to a base of moderated inner horn tonal smudges. More grounded and with more sections, “Escaped Sounds” build up to a Free Music swinger as electrified brass shading that seem to come from two horns at once, moves plunger moans and triplet howls into a narrative that constantly mutates within its four parts, climaxing with both power and presence.

However the three parts of “Unknown Suite” provide the best definition of the ad-hoc trio’s skill. Constantly skirting oppressive pressure, the three manage to lessen the tension with detours and asides even as it slows during the multi-sectional improvisation. As an assembly line of discordant brass moans and snarls evolves alongside drum pummels, cymbal rattling and arco thrust from the bassist, a crescendo of resonant drones and processing is reached on “Unknown Suite #2”. The final sequence packs more grating brass triplets, double bass stomps and drum pressure into the exposition only to refine the linear movement into a meditative and near-lyrical timbral blend by the conclusion.

Taylor/Avice/Stewart pitch a no-holds-barred brand of invigorating improvised music on their session while Dasika and company figurative paint a scene of evocative pastel colors. Complementary and corroborative, each is pleasurable, albeit likely to different audiences.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Life: 1. Life Forms 2. Noodle 3. Osmanthus Green 4. River Song 5. Lanaryu 6.  All Good Things 7. Sunless City

Personnel: Life: Niran Dasika (trumpet); Andrea Keller (piano) and Helen Svoboda (bass)

Track Listing: Deep: 1. Deep in the Earth 2. Pangea Suite #1 3. Pangea Suite #2  4. Pangea Suite #3 5. Unknown Suite #1 6. Unknown Suite #2 7. Unknown Suite #3 8. Escaped Sounds #1 9. Escaped Sounds #2 10. Escaped Sounds #3 11. Escaped Sounds #4 12. High in the Sky

Personnel: Deep: Aymeric Avice (trumpet and flugelhorn); Luke Stewart (bass and mbira) and Chad Taylor (drums and mbira)