Bill Shoemaker (Point Of Depature) on The Way We Speak by Spaces Unfolding

Bead is a now-legendary musician-administered label that began in the early 1970s, an early outlet for London-based improvisers emerging in the wake of the first lions like Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, and John Stevens. Some earlier releases like Fire Without Bricks by drummer Roy Ashbury and saxophonist Larry Stabbins, and Philipp Wachsmann’s overlooked solo gem for violin and electronics, Writing in Water, have been reissued on CD by Corbett vs. Dempsey. Otherwise, it does take some effort to find Bead’s titles on LP, and only slightly less so with their CD catalog. With everything that happened in the 1970s now ripe for half-century reassessment, Bead should be celebrated in a new light, as the label championed a host of musicians who vividly fleshed out the history of the decade.

Wachsmann continues to be a pillar of the label as an administrator as well as one of its primary artists. The quality of his distinctive voice is clearly presented on the aptly titled The Way We Speak by the cooperative trio, Spaces Unfolding. The album is a first, as it documents Wachsmann in a small group with flutist Neil Metcalfe, another longtime and under-heralded contributor to the arc of improvised music in the UK. The trio is rounded out by drummer Emil Karlsen, a relative newcomer to the scene, but who has quickly established himself as a resourceful improviser. Karlsen’s use of a small kit that recalls Stevens’ allows him to deftly color, texture, and propel the music as it develops.

Both Wachsmann and Metcalfe gravitate towards building complementary lines and timbres to create a freely contrapuntal interplay. They also both build materials without jump cuts or other discontinuity-producing devices. In this sense, their approach is consonant with the ensemble’s name. The unhurried pace of their five improvisations gives each improviser room to elongate short motive-like phrases, extend and morph dialogue, and carefully shade spaces – or leave them bare. It also gives the listener second-by-second insight into the close listening they share. This is enhanced by the excellent sound, achieved by recording in Old Saint Mary’s Church in Stoke Newington.

British people use the word “lovely” to describe almost anything – “brilliant” runs a close second. But both arguably overused descriptors apply to The Way We Speak. Spaces Unfolding’s music is something to savor, to relish. It is both lovely and brilliant.

Eyal Hareuveni (Salt Peanuts) on The Way We Speak by Spaces Unfolding

Spaces Unfolding features two pioneer British free improvisers – flutist Neil Metcalf and violinist Philipp Wachsmann, both are known for their work with the London Improvisers Orchestra as well as their work with such seminal improvisers like Roscoe Mitchell, Evan Parker and Barry Guy, with the Norwegian, Leeds-based drummer Emil Karlsen, who recently joined the London Improvisers Orchestra. Karlsen has played with Metcalfe and Wachsmann since 2019 in various contexts but separately – with Metcalf in various ad-hoc situations on the London improvised music scene, and with Wachsmann in his electro-acoustic trio Tern. Surprisingly, Metcalf and Wachsmann never played together apart from in the London Improvisers Orchestra and in various Evan Parker large ensembles.

Karlsen offered Metcalf and Wachsmann to record a trio session in one afternoon at St. Mary’s Old Church in Stoke Newington (the last surviving Elizabethan church in London), without any prior discussions of ideas to explore. The outcome is the new Spaces Unfolding trio and a debut album, The Way We Speak, the first encounter of an improvising trio exploring the group constellation within its surroundings.

As expected, Spaces Unfolding explores the timbral and textural interrelationship of the flute, violin, and percussion constellation. But Spaces Unfolding does much more, in a natural, immediate and intimate manner, never losing the intriguing tension. Only highly experienced improvisers, with deep listening gifts and strong personal voices, who close improvisational approaches can produce such profound music. The music flows seamlessly from the delicate, Chamber melodies to almost silent whispers, sonic searches that investigate extended breathing, bowing and percussive techniques, and intense storms. But always keeping a cohesive spirit, while Metcalfe, Wachsmann and Karlsen clearly enjoy the spacious acoustics of St. Mary’s Old Church.