By Fotis Nikolakopoulos  The music of divr, the trio of Philipp Eden on piano, Raphael Walser on double bass and Jonas Ruther on drums, is new to my ears. Their take on improvised music includes a pop sensibility (is it just me or the wonderful artwork is their first message towards this direction?) that covers a lot of ground connecting jazz with electronic rhythmology. The questions posed by Is This Water could be translated as “what kind of music is this”? Their fusion of languages, styles and clusters of chaotic rhythms demands the listener’s attention, while they compete on how to a ..read more

By Stef Gijssels "Desarbres Ensemble" is a wonderful quintet consisting of Tom Chant on soprano saxophone, Carina Khorkhordina on trumpet, Michał J. Biel on baritone saxophone, Mateusz Rybicki on tenor saxophone and Àlex Reviriego on bowed double bass. The composition is from the pen of Ferran Fages, the Spanish guitarist, composer and sound artist.  Interestingly enough, his lengthy composition has a very similar concept as the recent "Anemone" by Earth Tongues, with a repetitive alteration between horns collectively circling around a tonal center, followe ..read more

By Don Phipps Perky upbeat bluesy – all words that could be used to describe pianist Ethan Iverson’s album Technically Acceptable. Meandering is another word. And, perhaps the more precise word, as the music presented does not hang its hat on emotional intensity or innovative phrasing. Instead, what is offered is relatively plain vanilla Iverson compositions and two covers. To make matters worse, the rhythm section (comprised of Thomas Morgan on bass and Kush Abadey on drums on all of the original numbers) uses “paint by number” lines that appear to wander in a blissful haze without noticeabl ..read more

By Stef Gijssels The liner notes in the album explain the album's title: "The experience might be best summed up by a line from George Oppen’s “Route”— “The sea anemone dreamed of something, filtering the sea water thru its body”, meaning that the musicians, performing outside in open space listen, absorb and transform, interpret what they hear. This the trio's fourth album, and again a wonderful listening experience. We hear Joe Moffett on trumpet, Dan Peck on tuba and Carlo Costa on percussion. Their voice is singular: deep sounds collectively resonating around single tones with minut ..read more

(photo Russ Rowland) 1. What is your greatest joy in improvised music? When the unknown provinces of each person involved, musician and listener included, communicate and make a world/form that unfolds with a life of its own. 2. What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with? Song—because it fuses every other quality within itself and is the ability to listen fearlessly in the full command and ease of time. 3. Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most? So many ... This very second: Elvin Jones. 4. If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who w ..read more

By Martin Schray German pianist Oliver Schwerdt likes to bring together musicians who have never played together before. This usually works across generations, as with the New Old Luten Quintet or Big Bad Brötzmann. The trio with free jazz veterans Barry Guy and Günter “Baby“ Sommer works in a similar way, because although the German drummer and the British bassist have played alongside almost all the great free jazz musicians in the last 50 years, they had never performed together until this trio’s first appearance in 2018. This gig is documented on One For My Baby And One More For The Bass ..read more

By Matty Bannond The human brain makes a lot of predictions. When life contradicts those forecasts, it unleashes a variety of physical and emotional responses. A trio of high-profile improvisors explores the depth and breadth of those reactions in this ten-track album. It’s improvised but controlled by hard parameters such as time limits. Like a spider trapped in a bathtub. Or three spiders. Sally Gates is at the heart of most songs for most of that allotted time. The guitarist is a regular co-creator in New York’s experimental scene and leads the avant-rock trio Titan to Tachyons, who rel ..read more

By Gary Chapin On April 27, Tim Berne held a listening party on Bandcamp for the Oceans And album, LUCID/STILL (Screwgun 2024). Aurora Nealand was also present. It was great to listen to this disc with the requisite intentionality, and the chat was informative, interesting, and amusing. Oceans And is Tim Berne on alto, Aurora Nealand on accordion and voice, and Hank Roberts on cello.The album is one single track, 43-ish minutes long, and is from a live performance in January. It’s ⅘ of the first set, according to Tim. Let’s begin. In the first two minutes. Damn this is a dense group. And t ..read more

By Don Phipps More modern classical than free jazz, James Ilgenfritz’s “Stay Logged In On This Trusted Device” features four Ilgenfritz compositions performed in four different settings – solo bass with electronics, a saxophone quartet, an octet which features two bassists, and a baseless quartet. Eschewing in your face dynamics, the music Ilgenfritz presents here is cerebral, abstract and minimalist. Think clever exhibitions of sound in slow motion. For example, Ilgenfritz’s “Almostness” is a twenty-minute bass solo and electronics abstraction that develops slowly – often emphasizing a two ..read more

By Taylor McDowell Space is Lisa Ullén (piano), Elsa Bergman (double bass) and Anna Lund (drums).The piano trio based in Stockholm is back with a fiery follow-up to their 2022 debut. The trio now collectively goes under the name Space, which I perceive to be the symbolic transformation from ad hoc group to a real band. On Embrace the Space the trio indeed plays like a band - demonstrating a fondness of each other rooted in their shared history (a shared history dating back to at least 2016 as members of Anna Högberg Attack). On Embrace the Space, the exploratory interplay of their previous o ..read more