Recorded at the annual Taktlos Festival in Zürich, the music birthed on Oval is barely a year old. It’s that sort of attention to exigency that distinguishes the Intakt label’s commitment to its artists. Pianist Sten Sandell no doubt appreciates the patronage, as the performance captured is one of his finest on recent record. Divided into three comparably sized parts, the title suite covers a lot of ground in the span of three-quarters of an hour. A percussive emphasis conjures superficial comparisons to Cecil, but Sandell’s approach is markedly apart. His digits deal in dynamics and repetition, his left hand sketching out rumbling pedal-weighted chords that are more charcoal than pencil point while the right perforates with stabbing single notes. He’ll hammer a staggered progression to the point of bruising near-tedium, pulling back in the nick of time and darting off in a different direction. Occasional forays under the hood also vary the action, with strings strummed, dampened and plucked like the tightly wound strands of a massive Aeolian zither.
Sandell’s partners meet him every step of the way. Bassist Johan Berthling is similarly texture conscious; submerging in the roiling improvisatory sea to create distorted surface-bound ripples or skating the cresting whitecaps with sharply contoured harmonics. Paal Nilssen-Love is accustomed to this sort of setting too, his percussive swells and cascading polyrhythms adding to the aqueous mutability of the music. Despite several displays of solitary expression solos are of secondary importance. Great slabs of shared sound develop gradually, almost compulsively, with interplay subsuming individual virtuosity. Periodic breaks in the tempest deliver only partial respite from the prevailing mood of brooding sobriety and Sandell’s sounds just as possessed during these segments of relative calm. A sense of perpetual motion underscores the set, one that mirrors the unbroken shape named in the album’s title, though the overarching effect is more of grayscale shades than vibrant colors and serrated edges instead of soft contours. Even the delicate ballad fragment that serves as signoff to the set sprouts spines. As a whole, it’s a thrilling and edifying performance, but one that might have benefited from a bit of levity and humor.
~ Derek Taylor
Posted by derek on May 22, 2007 6:33 PMI have this on now, all four releases by this group are very good.
I wouldn't say it needs humor, humor so rarely works in improvised music it is not worth risking getting what you asked for.
Trust me, I live in a scene that was so ravaged by bad musical jokes It has taken years to even partially recover.
It is kind of like saying "The BIg Lebowski" needs some improvised music.
You are entering a world of pain, a world of pain my friend.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at June 23, 2007 12:06 AMDamon, what's your opinion of such humor-suffused acts as Eugene Chadbourne or Alterations? IMO humor is inseparable from both and does nothing to disqualify them from the pantheon of first-class improvisers and first-class music.
I won't ask about what qualifies in our local scene as "bad musical jokes" because I know what you're talking about -- and I agree with you on only a small percentage, which would be those for which I'm responsible.
Posted by: djll at June 23, 2007 11:30 AMChadboure can be amazing, he is such a great player anyway. I have to admit to not knowing much about the Alterations. They are on my list of things to check out. I won't pretend your large group section of "Noisy People" wasn't on my mind when I typed the above.
Posted by: damon Smith at June 23, 2007 2:18 PMDamon, thanks for the plug. Just for those who haven't seen it, Noisy People can be previewed and ordered here. :)
What's Warburton talking about? We all get along great out here under the sunny skies of California. Except when we bowl.
Posted by: djll at June 23, 2007 2:53 PM"I have to admit to not knowing much about the Alterations"
You could start off with Voila Enough:
http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/monthly2004/05may_text.html#4
Yeah, that is my plan when my Emusic downloads refresh, they carry unheard.
As far as physical cds I just got the new eRikm/dieb13 which looks amazing and what I have heard so far sounds great.
I also go Signal to Noise vol. 2
It's really too bad Up Your Sleeve is OOP. That's a great Alterations record.
Both Alterations and Chadbourne use humor not to ingratiate themselves with the audience ("entertain") but to violate the accepted terms of music and listening. Violence and speed in their musics hold off any feeling of comfort in the listener.
btw Damon, good job plugging Noisy People. But you forgot to provide the link to the website. ;)
Posted by: djll at June 24, 2007 7:49 AMChadbourne is also not using humor to mask lack of ideas or technique.
I played with him a fair amount and always loved it.
I saw him do a fantastic and very serious duo with Wadada Leo Smith, another time I saw him play banjo with William Parker on tuba and Jackson Krall on drums. There is a great quartet cd with Kowald, Sunny Murray, Chadbourne and Walter Malli doing free jazz versions of WienerLieder.
As far as the Alterations impact on the London scene in comparision to what happens here, we have to keep in mind they were one group with half the greatest improvisors ever to counter-balance the humor.
"There is a great quartet cd with Kowald, Sunny Murray, Chadbourne and Walter Malli doing free jazz versions of WienerLieder."
Whoa, where? What label Damon? That I don't know about at all - I knew Sunny had played quite a bit in Vienna, with Malli and Werner Dafeldecker, but not with Eugene! Send details, now!
Or this one of Eugene's bootlegs? Bought a great cassette from him once (wrapped in an old dirty sock), much of which was recorded in Vienna. "Walter Malli Walter Malli der Viennese police is comink to get you.."
It is on some Austrian Label. I am trying to locate it now but it is in my cd piles somewhere...
Posted by: damon Smith at June 24, 2007 11:13 PMIt is on PAO records but there is no info at Pao.at
It looks like you can download it here:
http://musicforum.org.ua/viewtopic.php?t=074900ef80a
Thanks for this, Damon. As if I didn't have enough bloody music to listen to already.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at June 25, 2007 4:49 AMChadbourne also had a trio with Lovens and Bertram Turetzky doing Slim Galliard and Slam Stewart Material. I don't think it ever got an offical release, but I think I heard he was selling cdrs.
Posted by: damon Smith at June 25, 2007 9:40 AMI'll have to check this... Looks like a great band. I have the "Muhammad Malli" record on Message, which is quite good, as well as some recordings with Franz Koglmann on Pipe. This should be interesting.
Posted by: clifford at June 25, 2007 12:29 PMAh shit, I have to pay $20 to hear this?
Posted by: clifford at June 25, 2007 12:37 PMOh, was referring to the download, not the Intakt.
Posted by: clifford at June 25, 2007 1:22 PM"There is a great quartet cd with Kowald, Sunny Murray, Chadbourne and Walter Malli"
you can order CD here:
http://shop.gigicd.com/go/_search/full_search.php?search_query_words=walter+malli
54 zlotys - that's more like the right price! Have you got a copy of this, Tadeusz? Swap you for something! (Was in Poland two weeks ago, rocking Alchemia - great place)
Posted by: Dan Warburton at June 25, 2007 9:58 PMAnybody got contact info for Walter Malli? I tried googling him and didn't get an email address or post address. Not surprising, I guess...
Posted by: clifford at June 26, 2007 12:19 PM54 zlotys = 13.60 Euro
"Have you got a copy of this, Tadeusz?"
No, I don't. I've never heard Walter Malli. Should I ?
"Was in Poland two weeks ago, rocking Alchemia - great place"
I know. I heard that it was a very good concert. I wish I was there. (Unfortunately job responsibilities made my appearance impossible).
All being well, that concert will be released on Not Two.
Meanwhile, to get back to the matter in hand, since when have you been "birthing", Derek? That, along with "eschew" is one of my pet hates! Meow!
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