Brad Rose (Foxy Digitalis) on Here and How by John Butcher, Dominic Lash and Emil Karlsen
Restrained frenzy seems like an impossible thing, yet John Butcher, Dominic Lash, and Emil Karsen found the tools to unlock it. Bass, drums, and saxophone occupy their own spots while sending out aural tendrils that intersect with one another. There’s an intimacy to these recordings that’s lovely. Sputtering, breathy notes tiptoe rapidly across quickfire, pointillist rhythms metered out on both bass and drums. This music has space. Butcher’s quick, gliding runs weave in and out of the air around Lash and Karlsen, on “Spinel” in particular, tying loose knots between the margins. The technical skill on display is incredible, giving these wild, angular jaunts an undercurrent of precision that elevates them to new heights.
Jan Granlie (Salt Peanuts) on Here and How by John Butcher, Dominic Lash and Emil Karlsen (auto translated version)
The Norwegian drummer Emil Karlsen has gradually established himself on the British free jazz scene. Currently based in the UK, he is described as a “significant addition to the UK free jazz scene” and an “exceptional improvisational drummer”. Keen to explore the timbral possibilities of the drum kit, he plays with musicians such as Philipp Wachsmann, Matthew Bourne, Phil Durrant, Maggie Nicols, Ed Jones and the London Improvisers Orchestra to name a few.
Saxophonist John Butcher knows a lot from several collaborations with the Norwegian drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg, plus musicians and projects such as Derek Bailey, Akio Suzuki, John Stevens’ Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Rhodri Davies, Last Dream of the Morning (with John Edwards and Mark Sanders ), Steve Beresford, Matthew Shipp, Gerry Hemingway, Chris Burn, Magda Mayas, Gino Robair, Thermal (with Andy Moor and Thomas Lehn), Christian Marclay, Eddie Prévost, Okkyung Lee, John Russell and Phil Minton, and must be considered a of the most important free jazz musicians in the British Isles.
Bassist Dominic Lash is perhaps the least known of the trio to Norwegian and Nordic readers, but he is, and has been, heard with musicians such as Alexander Hawkins, Tim Hill, Steve Noble, Samantha Rebello, Pat Thomas, Philipp Wachsmann and Alex Ward. He has also played with saxophonist Evan Parker and violinist Tony Conrad, and in recent times he has played extensively with guitarist Joe Morris, drummer Tony Buck and saxophonist Tony Bevan.
This recording is the first time the three meet musically, and we get nine freely improvised “sequences”, where all three play an equal role, but where, naturally, Butcher appears as the one who “pulls” the improvisations forward.
A lot can be said about such freely improvised meetings. But for being the first time the three meet musically, I think they get along well with each other. The music is free as the bird, and the three “float” up there with a common understanding of where they want to go with the improvisations. Butcher is an excellent saxophonist who comes up with many good ideas. Lash adds and fills in nicely, and Karlsen is relatively close to several of the leading freely improvising drummers we have had the pleasure of listening to on the European jazz scene in the last 30 years. And together they create a thoughtful whole that works. But this is music you should hear at a concert, where you can almost “touch and feel” the music. When you sit in your “maple chamber” to listen to the music, you create your own images and stories around the music, which may be far from what the musicians intended. But it can also be a “sport” that can give good results. And on this “debut”, I think it works perfectly.
Jean Michel van Schouwburg on Here and How by John Butcher, Dominic Lash and Emil Karlsen
The art of skillful staccato articulated by a master of the saxophone, both a very sharp researcher of sounds and textures and a remarkable stylist with a sound and immediately recognizable ideas, both on the tenor sax and the soprano. Ah the flights in double or triple detached rustling which oscillate and spiral in the mysteries of secret harmonies in voluble convolutions which are slow to find their point of fall for our great surprise. The sax-bass-battery trio has become over the course of … decades … a commonplace of jazz-free and free improvisation, but these three musicians, very fortunately, believe this observation by the extent and validity of their very diversified. The playful multiplicity of scales, intervals and accents, the unstoppable melodic sense of our dear John Butcher is obviously a major asset. This much in demand improviser has more recently met and recorded regularly with bassist Dominic Lash : Discernment – Butcher/ Lash/ Russell/ Sanders (spoonhunt), But Everything Now Left Before It Arrived – Russell/ Butcher/ Lash (Meenna) and Nodosus – Butcher / Davies/ Davis/ Lash / Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (Empty Birdcage).
It was on the Bead label that I heard Dominic Lash for the first time in Imaginary Trio with Bruno Guastalla (cello) and Phil Wachsmann, the violinist who was the kingpin of this legendary label founded in 1974. gave the orders to the Norwegian percussionistEmil Karlsen who recorded in duo with saxophonist Ed Jones, Phil Durrant on mandolin and drummer Mark Sanders, but also with Phil Wachsmann and Martin Hackett (see recent productions Bead Records). Similarly, it was with the LP Bead Records “Phonetiks” in duet with pianist Chris Burn that John Butcher began his career (1985). So that’s the short story. The great story is the one that patiently takes shape Here and How , Here and Nowduring a superb session on December 22, 2022, dressed in a neat digipack production. We must speak of the double bass player whose woody and discreet bowing highlights the butcherism and his extreme whistles; his tangential pizzicato frames his two colleagues and the milimeter strikes of drummer Emil Karlsen . This one shifts, knits, tingles, attacks the drive of the trio of micro-strikes, tiny bursts, delicately noisy that he creates by inserting a dosage of silent effects with an ideal sense of dynamics, cousin of that of the Rogers. Turner, Mark Sanders or Paul Lovens.
A “running” bass drum sax trio would have revealed its secrets and dark corners to you in a single listen, as happens to me when I write a poetic or fiery, reasonable or partisan report. And this because of the great musical evidence of these opuses. But with this Here and How , I admit to needing to come back to the work, to discover it and re-discover it with several listenings, just as it happened to me with the very recent Nail by Michel Doneda, Alex Frangenheim and Roger Turner. The audio caving of the improbable undergrounds of mines buried in the depths of our consciousness… infinity… and piles of CD’s.
George Grella (New York City Jazz Records) on The Way We Speak by Spaces Unfolding (Neil Metcalfe, Philipp Wachsmann, Emil Karlsen)
It is uncommon to hear completely improvised playing that eschews extended techniques of sound production and sticks closely to clear notes and musical ideas rather than using instrumental effects for expressive purposes. In other words, the trio’s focus is melodic. The result is an engrossing, satisfying and often quite beautiful album. Karlsen is the central figure, having played with each of the other musicians before, but this was their first meeting as a trio, so ultimately the album is about skilled musicians discovering, through pure improvisation, how to make music together. It is one of the finest documents of how improvisation is made that this listener has heard, on par with the two astounding The Life of a Trio albums (by Paul Bley, Jimmy Giuffre and Steve Swallow).All the music is thus process: there are passages where things aren’t particularly exalted or even directed, and times when the musicians listen closely to each other, suggesting ideas and possibilities and finding consensus. The effect is clear and relaxed; things that don’t work, such as Karlsen’s mallet playing at the start, are gently neglected in favor of a more promising phrase from flute or violin. Metcalfe’s tone is silvery and the acoustic space is both resonant and intimate. The album is broken up into five tracks but these seem arbitrary, and once the music starts the listener is more likely to listen to it as a whole, following the development of a group language.
Andrzej Nowak(Spontaneous Music Tribune) on Especially For You by Harri Sjostrom, Erhard Hirt, Philipp Wachsmann and Paul Lytton.
On stage we find Sjöström’s small saxophone, Hirt’s guitar, Wachsmann’s violin (the last two instruments retrofitted electronically) and Lytton’s drum kit, as usual rich in its own electro-acoustic devices that support his light but very compulsive drumming . The first set lasts a full thirty minutes, and its opening is shrouded in a cloud of filigree acoustics doused in electroacoustic noise. The musicians react not only to each other, but also to the omnipresent silence. The saxophone seems ready to play, while the violin waits, and electronic dust and stylish flying percussion swirl around . The narrative is both gentle and feisty, reminiscent of the good, pioneering years of free improv. The story of the four masters takes on incidental dynamics from time to time, and this usually happens thanks to Lytton’s actions. Hirt and his guitar introduce a lot of ferment here, while Sjöström and Wachsmann rather guard the melodic order, willingly sing and equally willingly groan painfully. A long improvisation has many phases and subsections. Sometimes electronics from almost three sources can show their lion’s claws, sometimes everyone works in a minimalist mode and conducts improvised dialogues in the call & response convention, there are also moments when the narrative plunges into an almost dreamlike darkness. After the twentieth minute, the story takes on a surprisingly post-classical flavor. The musicians almost drown in silence, but the percussion master does not allow much and pulls the quartet to a spectacular elevation. However, the final say belongs to the saxophone and violin.
The second set, almost twenty minutes long, starts quite calmly. A slim saxophone, a hint of analog electronics and prepared guitar phrases. Underneath this sound stream, rustling drumming slips in and once again elevates the narrative to a slight peak. However, the sopranino and violin do not give up and create an impressive lullaby. Lytton does not let up and for a moment the improvisation seems exceptionally noisy. The next phase of the concert is an attempt to combine water and fire – post-baroque chants now flow on the shoulders of percussion brushes working at quite a dynamic range. In the background there lives an emotionally unstable guitar, which again and again provides small counterpoints to the exchange of pleasantries. Emotions run high here, however, and thick silence turns out to be a good comment.
The concert encores last approximately seven minutes in total. The first one is quite lively, initiated collectively. The narrative is even filled with some dancing and focuses on rhythmic games. The guitar phrasing is jazzy, the rest quickly moves into a phase of intriguing preparations. A bit of humor, acoustic grotesque and guitar mute. The second encore, according to the name of the song on the album, is a typical farewell song . Saxophone and violin are again immersed in melodious post-classicism, resonating percussion and gently fermented guitar. Against the distant background, a handful of electroacoustic micro events create an interesting dissonance. After the last sound, there was applause for several dozen seconds. Oh how!
Eyal Hareuveni (Salt Peanuts) on Especially For You by Harri Sjostrom, Erhard Hirt, Philipp Wachsmann and Paul Lytton.
Being a free improviser means that you have to exercise unpredictable situations as an existential essence of life. This is how the Especially For You quartet came to life. The original plan was to have a concert of the Quartet XPACT – German guitarist Erhard Hirt, sax player Stefan Keune and double bass player Hans Schneider with British drummer Paul Lytton – for the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Einstein Kultur in Munich, founded by the city of Munich. But Keune and Schneider were indisposed and were replaced, at the last minute by Finnish sax player Harri Sjöström and British violinist Philipp Wachsmann. This live, free-improvised performance at MUG in Munich occurred in October 2022. Lytton did the cover painting for the album documenting this concert.
It was the first time that these four gifted free improvisers played together as a quartet. Sjöström and Wachsmann played in many formats since the 1980’s, most notably in the Quintet Moderne, and Sjöström played with Lytton in the Cecil Taylor Ensemble. Hirt played before with Lytton and Wachsmann in the King Übü Örchestrü, and, obviously, all four musicians are masters of the art of the moment with distinct and highly personal palettes of sounds. Hirt extends his electric guitar with extensive computer treatments and transformations; Wachsmann also adds electronic treatments to his acoustic violin; Lytton employs an array of objects that comprise his unique sound pallet developed over the years and Sjöström has developed unique sonic inventions on the soprano and sopranino saxes.
The recording of this concert highlights the immediate and organic interplay of these experienced improvisers, before an appreciative audience. The music flows naturally and sounds fresh and urgent, and each piece has its own cryptic but poetic inner logic. Repeated listening discovers more and more nuances in the subtle interplay and the clever and endless sonic games of these pioneers of European improvised music. Wachsmann notes that the new quartet, as well as the attentive audience, brought a new thing to the concert, «a new moment ‘in the moment’». And, indeed, the final, playful applause even included a bold listener brandishing his iPhone playing back a short extract from the concert he had only just recorded.
Peter Margasak (independent) on Especially For You by Harri Sjostrom, Erhard Hirt, Philipp Wachsmann and Paul Lytton.
Hirt is a self-taught musician whose attraction to the blues in the 1970s eventually led him to jazz-rock, and eventually improvised music. Around the time the recordings mentioned above were made he formed the group XPACT with Lytton, reedist Wolfgang Fuchs, and bassist Hans Schneider, and he was an early member of the King Übü Orchestrü. He’s never stopped playing, and his work appears on more than two dozen recordings, including many with a guitar-synthesizer set-up he’s now used for many years, including Especially For You, a new recording with an ad hoc lineup of XPACT where and he Lytton were joined by saxophonist Harri Sjöström and violinist Philipp Wachsmann—the latter two were subbing for Schneider and current reedist Stefan Keune, who were unable to make the gig. The album was recorded in Munich in October of 2022, and released a few weeks ago on Wachsmann’s long-running Bead label. While Lytton and Wachsmann continue to use electronics to expand and warp their output, Hirt used a computer to reimagine his guitar sounds, creating something that churns, glides, gargles, and spasms, leaving it difficult to tell where one source ends and where another begins, and how each musician’s contribution impacts the others. The quartet proceeds in potent fits and starts, incorporating plenty of space only to unleash the occasional torrent of jarring noise. You can get a strong sense of these elusive machinations below, with “For You Part Two.”
It is not a simple problem to attribute an artistic explanation to what one wants to represent theoretically as ‘fragmentation’ or ‘segmentation’. When Deleuze and Guattari arrived in philosophy, it was clear that the finite body of the work no longer had any reason to exist, but that attention had to be paid to the vibrations or modulations of it: it is in the search for forces, polarities, empathies or illusions that value is understood.
The processes of musical fragmentation or segmentation are at the basis of Especially For You, a CD for Bead Records that accommodates a concert of pure improvisation that took place in October 2022 in Munich to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Einstein Kultur cultural centre, a concert given by the XPACT Quartet in a reworked version: originally consisting of guitarist Erhard Hirt, saxophonist Stefan Keune, double bassist Hans Schneider and percussionist Paul Lytton, that evening the audience saw a different version due to the unavailability of Keune and Schneider, with the two musicians being replaced at the last minute by Harri Sjöström on soprano and sopranino sax and Philipp Wachsmann on violin and electronics.
In a performance of about an hour, the renewed quartet presented itself to an audience prepared and eager to participate in an experience that only free improvisation can offer: going ‘against the grain’, towards acoustic constraints and devilish waves of singular and unintelligible sounds, the quartet offered a beautiful proof of how one can reconcile a lot of abstract art on a mental level, taking advantage of sounds that are not normally desired by musicians but that can tell something.
Ettore Garzia (translation Deepl) on Especially For You by Harri Sjostrom, Erhard Hirt, Philipp Wachsmann and Paul Lytton.
Some information already comes from the cover, which bears a painting by Lytton. The English percussionist, a historical signature of British and world improvisation, is also a very good painter, with his own style and his own logic of intervention, the same one that presides when he plays his percussive set: although I did not find in the internal notes the name given to the painting, I realise that it is in Lytton’s orientations, i.e. abstract thickenings that need a lot of observation and detail to impose themselves; the aim is to let the viewer derive their own image from the painting’s apparent state of confusion, for by using colouristic techniques in a certain way and begging on the details created, the painting is able at some point to give explanations that lead back to real-world attitudes. In the viscous torpor of the colours and images, we can think about the facets of our character, being cautious or impatient, provoking reflection or leaning in for a warning: it is something that is also conveyed in the music and is also the common heritage of the other three musicians, who work on the rubbing, hissing or simmering of events in a unique way, precise to the situation of the place and the interaction of the moment as in the best tradition of free improvisation.
Especially in the two long parts of For You, the ‘greatness’ of the coordination and direction of the music is evident, becoming a drive in the best Deleuzian style: destabilising the normality of the parameters is not a method for its own sake but an opportunity to offer other terms of comparison of expression; interconnection is fundamental in this task and this is immediately verified through listening as one perceives a maturity both in terms of the acoustic performance and the perfect relationship between the musicians. The extensive techniques on the instruments determine the result in Especially For You but they are not everything, there is a further sum that the musicians provide in knowing how to ‘feel’ each other, in keeping the pulse of the situation at all times and capturing the judgement of the audience present.
It is difficult to express in exact words what happens in Especially For You, just as it is difficult to give an immediate opinion on Lytton’s paintings… I challenge anyone to do so in a short time; but at the same time my ears sense that we are faced with an area of expression that has yet to be discovered. If Sjöström and Lytton produce themselves in their aesthetic inventions, with semantic combinations of which they know all the predictive value, Hirt and Wachsmann often accentuate their improvisational stance with little electronic treatments, suggesting that it is also on this point that expression is at stake.
The titling of the pieces, which indistinctly addresses a receiving entity, smacks very much of modern poetics: that non-rhetoric is often an observation of deformed zones, of thoughts that can create tension and perspiration at the same time, but it is matter that nonetheless offers itself to the interpretation of the listener. There is no doubt that on that evening in Munich, there was a need for a happy image of the free as well as a strong dose of empathy towards the audience, something that Wachsmann defined it as a new moment ‘in the moment’, referring to the attention devoted to the performance: one of those present had filmed the quartet’s concert with his mobile phone and during the final applause made partial use of it, sending a small extract back into the ether. To tell the truth, I cannot perceive this ‘referral’ of the final part of the CD, however I trust one fact, namely that that concert succeeded in satisfying a need, bringing together the ‘illusions’ of those present for an hour.
Fotis Nikolakopoulos (Freejazzblog) on The Undanced Dance, Muted Language and Here and How
The Undanced Dance – light.box + Emil Karlsen
Jazz is the point of departure for the duo of light.box. Alex Bonney is on trumpet and electronics and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay on bass guitar and electronics. The extended use of electronics creates ambient sonic atmospheres that are playful and rewarding. The addition of drummer/percussionist (and one of the artists that resurrected Bead Records) adds a jazzier feel on a first level. Karlsen’s very modern and up to date polyrhythmic drumming approach matches perfectly with the aggressive notes and plucks coming from Tremblay’s bass guitar. The droney, atmospheric trumpet is a source of diverse audio results coming from his use (as evident in other releases he participates too) of different techniques on the instrument. Bonney’s trumpet is as flexible as it can get.
The Undanced Dance (what a great choice of words to describe it, indeed) consists of three long tracks that are divided into smaller parts. I really like the way they slowly build ambient textures, reaching into a lengthened climax that certainly leaves out any fears this could be some boring ambient music, like so much material under this label nowadays. Karlsen’s playing is versatile, flexible as ever and very humble. It seems, at some of the tracks, that he deliberately stays almost silent in order to leave room for the light.box duo.
Leaving aside that it could be a matter of choice, I really would like, if I must nag a bit, to listen more to the aggressive parts of Tremblay’s bass guitar. Nothing to do with any rock gestures, thankfully…
The Undanced Dance seems, and is, an important new entry in this second volume trajectory of Bead, as it broadens the label’s catalogue, while staying true to the nature of 1970’s improvisation (in which Bead was integral too) that anything fits and can be done.
Muted Language – Mark Sanders / Emil Karlsen
Coming from rock tradition, in my pre-teens and as a teenager, I have to admit that I owe to jazz and free jazz tradition (you, can spot the irony, right?) the fact it totally changed my idea of what drumming is, how solo drumming can be perceived. The notion that there is life beyond hitting the drums as aggressively as you can, apart from tearing down the macho idea (even physique) of the drummer, opened up, and still does, so many different paths as a listener. I deeply and profoundly enjoy listening to just the drums.
Muted Language, the first drumming duo of, coming from a younger generation of improvisers Emil Karlsen, with Mark Sanders (who has worked with John Butcher, John Edwards, Veryan Weston and Tony Bevan among others) clarifies from the first moments you start listening, that it is an open and freeform affair belonging to the aforementioned trajectory. Playing the drums can definitely be a muted, non-verbal language. Here, though, we have a duo of drummers that, in the midst of the pandemic as it was recorded in May 2021, hit it off right from the beginning.
Improvisation as a practice made us all realize that the solo voice (call it an instrument too) is as important as the shared language, but the up and coming result (of the duo in this case) is much more important. Here, in Muted Language too, the interaction, the silences, the stop-and-go-again of each musician are the important factors of its success, as a true child of free improvisation.
It amazed me and really enjoyed it, that the two drummers are almost audibly indistinguishable in their playing. There is no overlapping, no easy way out to present a solo dynamic. Just a constant flow, through interaction and intensive listening, of ideas, be it polyrhythmic, energetic –but not loud- playing, or sonic environments that are created on the spot utilizing all their instruments. Sonically, Muted Language, demands your attention as its essence lies in the small gestures in a audio micro-climate that bursts from fresh material. I strongly believe that Muted Language will become very important in the fresh catalogue of Bead Records.
Here and How – John Butcher / Dominic Lash / Emil Karlsen
Chronologically the last of the three, even though they were released in just a few months away from each other, proving that the artists around Bead are on a fertile period, Here and How is the one closer to a free jazz/free improv trio from the three. The trio is consisted by one of the older generation stalwarts of free improvisation, the great John Butcher on saxophones, with two younger generation musicians-improvisers, Dominic Lash on double-bass and Emil Karlsen on drums and percussion.
It would be a misinterpretation to call this release the most “normal” sounding of the three. It certainly is the one closest to the “tradition” free jazz built through hardships and polemical situations. The three of them have built an eclectic catalogue of their own, one that is full of surprises and, certainly, not one that goes under the moniker mannerism.
The CD, clocking in around fifty absolutely enjoyable minutes, consists of eleven tracks –mainly sorter passages with only one that exceeds the ten minute mark. For all of us, free jazz and improv acolytes it is a given truth that there are numerous recordings out there of the best quality. This remark, automatically, poses the next question. Why listen, or even buy, this CD then?
Well, of course, there is no easy, objective, or one that is measured by the numbers, reply. All the Bead releases right now engulf the essence of urgency. There are artists behind this name (one of the most important of the 1970’s, lest we forget) that seem really eager and excited to put out there new music. And there’s of course a certain quality in the playing of those three. I read on Bead’s bandcamp page that this recording was the first time the three played together. A striking fact considering that the interplay is amazing. Butcher, well known for giving us the totally unexpected, provides with clear sax lines throughout the recording. He finds a balance between playing with a fierce tone and never saturating his fellow musicians with sheer volume. This way there’s enough room for Lash and Karlsen to move far and away from the bass-and-drum-being-the-backbone kind of music. Their playing is free and lucid, most of the times in unison, as a duo, other times providing their individual voices.
There are times that I felt that Butcher just blew humbly in his mouthpiece and others that he managed to be aggressive and leave room for Karlsen and Lash. His skill is evident even to those of us with limited technical knowledge. And, of course, it is a matter of sentiment. This recording is made up by three musicians who seem like impressionist painters, building, stroke by stroke, on small scale, finally creating a strong statement for the fresh catalogue of the label.
Simon Cummings (5:4) on The Undanced Dance – light.box + Emil Karlsen
On the one hand, it’s impossible not to listen to The Undanced Dance and make comparisons with Supersilent. Yet in spite of the similarities (perhaps, in part, because of them) this collaboration between Alex Bonney, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay and Emil Karlsen is seriously compelling. The album comprises three multi-part performances, ‘The Shot Must Fall’, ‘Loosing the Shot’ and ‘The Unmoved Movement’, and the consistency in the trio’s outlook is such that it’s impossible not to hear them as siblings, or even variations on a single behavioural theme. An aspect that recurs so often to be fundamental is an omnipresent question concerning the connection between sound elements. From the outset of ‘The Shot Must Fall’, Bonney’s trumpet, Karlsen’s drums and Tremblay’s electronics can be heard, depending on how you tilt your perceptions, as either playing out in parallel or integrated into a multifaceted whole. To a large degree that liminal situation doesn’t change much throughout The Undanced Dance, and it’s a highly stimulating component that keeps us on our toes, all the more so as the music evolves and changes. Part of this liminality arises from a tendency to juxtapose very slow and very fast elements simultaneously, the former often rapid-fire drumwork or convoluted granular textures, the latter roaming trumpet lines and sustained electronic tones. The high points are utterly exhilarating, most powerful in the first two parts of ‘Loosing the Shot’, where the trio throws all caution and restraint to the wind, allowing the group dynamic to soar in a whirlwind of sympathetic sound formations with us, rendered miniscule, marvelling from its core.
Bill Meyer (The Wire) on Here and How by John Butcher, Dominic Lash and Emil Karlsen
Here And How swaps Noble and Thomas for the young drummer Emil Karlsen in a first time encounter. Butcher matches the drummer’s light touch with a more quizzical, probing approach. Their dialogue has a balanced, self-regulating quality that reminds this listener of how Butcher has previously found ways not to overwhelm the quick decays and low volumes of acoustic stringed instruments. This leaves plenty of room for the session’s actual string player, double bassist Dominic Lash, to wax both mercurial and economical; there’s nothing spurious in his jumpcuts between buzzing resonance and carefully wrought shapes. The music feels just as engaged as that on Fathom, but with more white space, a quality that is enhanced by Antenna Studio’s dry acoustics.
Eyal Hareuveni (Salt Peanuts) on The Beholder’s Share by Alex Bonney, Paul Dunmall and Mark Sanders
The Beholder’s Share brings together an ad-hoc British free improvising trio of trumpeter-electronic musician-recording and mix engineer-producer Alex Bonney, legendary sax player Paul Dunmall (some of his recent albums were mixed by Bonney) and Dunmall’s long-term collaborator, drummer Mark Sanders. The debut album of this trio was recorded at Sansome Studios in Birmingham in November 2022 and was mixed by Bonney, who also took the cover photo, The Egyptian white desert.
The title of the album refers to a term, popularised by art historian Ernst Gombrich, for what viewers bring to pictures in order to make sense of them. Gombrich referred in particular to the need to draw upon ‘prior knowledge of possibilities ‘to separate the code from the message’. Where representational images depict what is familiar from social knowledge and employ familiar textual codes, viewers tend to be unaware of the contribution they are making to the process of representation.
In this musical meeting, Bonney, Dunmall and Sanders bring their own personal share of experience in free improvised settings. These creative musicians balance an urgent need for sonic exploration with close and democratic interaction and an organic flow of stormy music on the aptly titled, opening piece «Resonance Refractions». The trio’s sense of sense exploration intensifies in the second piece «Arid/In Phase» when Bonney plays on synth and electronics and pushes Dunmall and Sanders into abstract yet dramatic, otherworldly terrains. The last, 19-minute of the third piece «Generating Worlds» matches remarkably the British school of intense free improvisation with the eerie, alien electronic aesthetics.