Open Thread

Created earlier (2023) and continuously productive the Open Thread quartet could be an exemplar for any joint Australian-Canadian government agreement. Consisting of Vancouver drummer Dylan van der Schyf, who teaches part time at Melbourne’s Conservatorium of Music it includes fellow Conservatorium professor tenor saxophonist Julien Wilson, and has now expanded when joined by the drummer’s partner, cellist Peggy Lee and Aussie guitarist Theo Carbo.

Wilson has worked with everyone from the Australian Art Orchestra to Will Guthrie and younger Carbo with a cross section of down under improvisers. Meanwhile singly or together the Canadians have partnered a swath of international and local players including Jöelle Léandre, John Butcher and Gordon Grdina.

Encompassing atmospheric, jaunty and intense themes composed by all group members, the four are as apt to build an exposition around tough drum smacks, enlarged guitar flanges pieced with sul ponticello cello lines and reed bites as on “God’s Little Prefect”, as with the multi-themed “Travelling Home”. There wispy sax slurs harmonized with continuous guitar strums and drum paradiddles are reduced to a thinner interface until cadenced reed puffs connect with massed string sweeps for tones both complementary and individual. “Pocket Rocket” also demonstrates how an introduction made up of cello squeaks and saxophone spetrofluctuation can be superseded by a relaxed duet of guitar picking and drum shuffles.

Metaphorically these group linear narratives are not only fine music but suggest how joint Oz-Canuck deals should proceed in the future.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Waiting Music 2. God’s Little Prefect 3. From the Deck 4. The Sideway 5. Pocket Rocket 6. Rattle Song 7. Travelling Home 8. The Surface 9. Egg on the Escalator 10. Prince of Spoons 11. Sumud

Personnel: Julien Wilson (tenor saxophone and electronics); Theo Carbo (guitar); Peggy Lee (cello) and Dylan van der Schyff (drums and percussion)