It’s probably apt that the trio of pianist/electronic artist Sten Sandell (Gush), drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and bassist Johan Berthling, who’ve worked regularly in an idiom updating the explorations of Riley/Guy/Oxley and the Favre/Schweizer/Kowald trio, are now meeting with English saxophonist John Butcher. Butcher has similarly mined the seam of extended technique, a lingo of steely repetition, subtonal growls and bell-clear phrasing. His palette also has historically employed electro-acoustic devices, and on Strokes he’s credited with amplification and feedback in addition to his usual tenor/soprano axes. Unlike Townorchestrahouse, the recent meeting of Nilssen-Love, Sandell, bassist Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten and saxophonist Evan Parker which reveled in relentlessness, Strokes skirts the blowing-session mentality for a deliberate and sure-footed sonic exploration.
One thing that is particularly interesting about this group’s forebears – namely the Iréne Schweizer and Howard Riley groups mentioned above – is the uncanny blend of sounds produced, and the fact that a given sound’s origin thus ceases to be of importance. Bowed cymbals? Piano strings? Bass (and, in this case, saxophone) harmonics? Ring modulators? They pretty much occupy the same aural territory, in spite of the different physical operations necessary to produce each tone. Part of Butcher’s interest is that he’s able to create high-pitched squeals, trills and numerous multiphonics that mimic electronic devices in their exactitude – it’s an extension of the microscopism of Evan Parker, though the view to Coltrane and the jazz tradition is even farther away. Here, with a group mentality already confounding the material differences between acoustic instruments and electronic “noise,” Butcher’s sound-wrenching mimicry becomes part of a larger group palette, ironically subsuming his stand-alone instrumental character.
But the deliberateness with which the group moves forward is, perhaps, somewhat of a hindrance to its success. Perfectly-pitched and squarely-placed slap-tonguing, a march of bellows from Sandell’s left hand, electrically-ringing chimes from Nilssen-Love’s cymbals, all move with a frightening exactitude. As dense and cathartic as the foursome’s improvisation is, there’s very little cacophony or madness to the proceedings. Since when did building a language out of the ‘wrong’ sounds ever sound so completely ‘perfect?’ Sandell plays with an unaccompanied melody twenty minutes into “Study,” but so quickly is it dissected that there’s no chance for it to become useful. Even as the quartet embraces fragmentation throughout “Unsteady,” the distant comments of reeds and percussive racket on Sandell’s electronics seem poised (though the pianist’s employment of voice is a welcome surprise). Chalk it up to giving Chamberpot a recent spin, but I like my free music with a bit less constraint and a bit more ‘wrong.’
~ Clifford Allen
Posted by clifford on June 22, 2007 7:31 PMI've been listening to this and I like it so far, after a few listens. The first listen through I was not so sure, but that is often a good sign.
To me it sounds like the trio and Butcher trying to find the music (in a good way). I don't know if this was the first time he played with the group but if I had to guess, I would say it was. The group interaction (specifically b/t the trio and Butcher) is revealing on a very raw level, and pushes them into a lot of different directions. For instance, I can't recall ever hearing Butcher confronted with a really driving rhythm section like this one. It is interesting to hear how he responds to that (variously: 1) silence, 2) moving against the current with feedback sounds, 3) moving with the current with shrieking multi-phonics).
Sandell's playing is nice for its varieties of density (from very much to very little), as well as his (and the trio's) use of repetition. I haven't so far been that familiar with Nilson-Love (besides seeing his name a lot) but his playing reminds me of fellow Swedish drummer (and part-time SF Bay Area resident) Kjell Nordesson, for his use of patterns that are both very clear and precise, as well as open and very interesting.
The addition of electronics from Sandell and Butcher's amplification and feedback add a nice new level to the music, especially since they used in the context of a more free-jazz setting than they are usually heard.
So for my part I'm still hearing a lot of "wrong" - maybe on a different level, in terms of the interaction. Maybe that is "the new wrong".
Posted by: Jacob Lindsay at July 3, 2007 1:02 PMI know Kjell really likes Paal's playing. Paal has really grown on me, especially his work in this trio. His duo with Butcher is really nice as well. He has a wide range.
I hear both Jacob and Clifford. I think a meeting between a working group and a player on Butcher's level is bound to sound less ad hoc than it otherwise would, but I also hear some of the struggles Jacob mentions. I am still digging into this one, but I have enjoyed each listen.
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