Improvising drummer and composer Peter Orins is the main man behind the small, but significant in adventurous musics of today, label called Circum-disc. The following two releases are, certainly, two of the best I’ve listened to the whole year, pushing the envelope of improvisational music a little further. Like all releases from the label, both CD’s (even though Circum-disc is putting out vinyl as well) contain small gestures full of the ethos of free improvisation. But since the jeez word (improv that is) is already mentioned enough, I should not label the music in such a way. It is, in a few words, good, full of risks, music.
Trapeze – Level Crossing (Circum-disc, 2023)
This quartet’s music came out late in 2023 but it missed my best of list by a few weeks. I think it’s time to correct this mistake. The quartet is made of by the great, already making her presence very fruitful and strong, Sakina Abdou on the saxophone, trombonist Matthias Muller, my personal favorite Joke Lanz on the turntables and Orins himself on the drums. Just like the titles on the six tracks of Level Crossing, the music is playful, energetic and seems to elevate their playing into a non-hierarchical stance. Ego-less maybe. Clashing between playful electronics and acoustic sounds, syncopated rhythms from the drums, a sax that, at some points is unrecognizable, an ethereal presence that goes against the noisy character of the instrument and a fresh approach to the trombone (call it a part of an elastic rhythm section), the CD is a totally joyful listen. On the other hand it is so good, that brought, many times, a smile to my face. This is how improvisation should sound.
Woo – Hoo-ha (Circum-disc, 2024)
Hoo-ha, the trio’s CD who came out in the spring of 2024, is again Peter Orins on the drums, Christine Wodrascka on the piano and Paulina Owczarek playing the alto saxophone. Again, on this CD, the presence of women improvisors very important. Even though Orins and Owczarek have been playing together for some time (in fact another review, by me the fan of their music, of the duo has been posted on this site), but their achievement as a trio seems fresh. Two of the three tracks on the CD, especially the core track Why Not? (a note to the amazing album of the late 60’s by Marion Brown maybe?) which lasts more than half an hour, are live excursions on the (not so in this case) tradition of the piano-drums-sax trio.
On Why Not?, probably making a clear point for the whole album, they start rather conventionally, allowing the listener to get in touch with the three instruments, and as the track proceeds they collide, producing a small scale unified chaotic celestial sound. “Direct actions and interactions” is a phrase used on the bandcamp page of the CD and, rather pompous it initially seems, it describes their relationship quite accurately. Both between them as players and with their respected instruments. They succeed in presenting their music both directions at once. First as individuals who struggle to be heard while, abolishing the prose of loudness. And as a collective entity that its music is being produced through fruitful clashes (as separate duos and a trio of course) and three-person imaginings of the freedom improvisation brings. A great CD.
Listen:
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