Silvan Schmid, Tom Wheatley, Eddie Prévost - The Wandering One (Matchless, 2024) Trumpet Trio Series

By Stef Gijssels

Eddie Prévost no longer needs any introduction. As one of the founding members of AMM he has shaped and participated in the long development of free improvisation, with impact on music and musicians worldwide. He is here in the company of Tom Wheatley on bass and Silvan Schmid on trumpet. 

Wheatley has been active in Tennota, a band that explores the boundaries and possibilities of old and new forms, of acoustic and electronic music, of physical and digital sounds, and with which Swiss trumpeter Silvan Schmid also at some time participated in. Schmid only has three albums released so far, including this one, so his name did not immediately ring a bell, but he was the curator of the Taktlos Festival last year. 

As can be expected, this is in-the-moment music, at any time full of future possibilities, full of intensity, openness and unexpected next moves, like chess-players who decided to smartly engage for the fun of moving without any ambition to win. Schmid has a natural deep and warm tone in his playing, relatively accessible in his phrasing (relatively!), and Prévost at all times colours the total sound by incredible sophisticated drumming. Wheatley is often the one holding the sound together with his deep bowed bass sounds. The title tracks of the three pieces are almost programmatic: "Clearing The Detritus Of Time", "The Parsing Of Sounds" and "Remembering To Forget". Creativity requires a freshness that cannot be burdened by concepts of the past. Every note and its relationship to any other sound is thus fresh, full of surprise and potential. 

The album was recorded at All Hallows Church, High Laver, Essex, on 3rd April 2023, and the sound quality is absolutely excellent, as if you were sitting next to them. 

Sixty-five minutes of musical joy and creative craftmanship. 

The albums is available from the label.