It should be noted that this album is definitely not for free jazz purists.
But for those looking for a safe harbor amidst the tumult, a place to
reflect or meditate on past romance, this modern rework of ballads and
penetrating originals would offer such a solace. Just make sure to close
the blinds and breathe deeply.
You're never too old to do something new - and Marshall Allen proves this
in an exemplary way. He’s been a member of the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1958
and when Ra left the planet in 1993 he has been its artistic director since
1995 (after a short intermezzo by the saxophonist John Gilmore). At the age
of 100, he has now recorded his first solo album. New Dawn was recorded in
Philadelphia in May 2024 and is a joint project with Knoel Scott, the
baritone saxophonist and deputy leader of the Arkestra. Scott and Allen
combed through an archive of unreleased material and carefully selected
compositions that showcase Allen’s musical range.
Marshall Allen was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1924. He started
playing the clarinet at the age of ten, came to France as a US soldier,
earned his living as a musician from the 1940s onwards, stayed in Paris
until 1951, then went back to the United States - where he came across Sun
Ra. Since then, he has lived, breathed, thought and felt the Arkestra. And
of course his solo debut cannot deny this.
The first single on his debut album is called 'New Dawn' and features lyrics
by Scott, with Allen playing alto saxophone and Neneh Cherry, Don Cherry’s
stepdaughter and known from Rip, Rig and Panic, The Thing and as a solo
artist (remember “Buffalo Stance”) on vocals. Knoel Scott assembled a team
of current Philadelphia Arkestra members and Arkestra veterans for the
album, including Michael Ray and Cecil Brooks (trumpets), Jamaaladeen
Tacuma (bass), Bruce Edwards (guitar) and George Gray (drums).
The music presents a potpourri of the Sun Ra universe: new versions of
Arkestra classics like “Angels and Demons at Play”, West African influences
like in “African Sunset”, modern swing stompers like “Are You Ready” or the
elegant and mysterious title track, in which Neneh Cherry sings as if she
were a blues singer from days gone by. In general, the whole album sounds
like a soundtrack to a tasteful film adaptation of “Tales from the
Thousand and One Nights“ or like a jazz story of the second half of the
20th century - and Allen plays his still amazingly powerful-sounding
saxophone over everything.
The idea for this album also came from Jan Lankisch, who has been
responsible for the very prestigious Cologne Weekend Festival for years. The
festival is famous for the presentation of organizing legendary bands - such
as the Arkestra. The man knows Allen well. It was a good decision on
everyone’s part to give the musicians a lot of freedom in the studio. The
result is truly captivating, uplifting, enveloping, from the first to the
last bar. Long may Allen live!
New Dawn is available on vinyl (even a limited version), as a CD and as a
download.
When one approaches a new release from woodwindist Ken Vandermark there is a temptation to deconstruct the influences. He invites it, afterall, with the dedications in the titles. Look at the first suite of tunes on Broadcast Transformer, the recent release from his group Edition Redux: 'Other Nichols Other Dimes (for Herbie Nichols and The Minutemen) / Salto (for Jacob Lawrence) / Pony Up (for Rebecca Morris).' Hell, there are three in just one track and the names point in many different directions - 20th century avant-garde musicians, painters and hard-core bands. Track two: "Autochrome (for Faith Ringgold) / Scratch Vocal (for Scratch Acid) / Clockwise (for Peter Greenaway) / Velocity Dub (for Joel Sternfeld)" - another painter, another hard-core band, a British filmmaker, and a mid-century American photographer who chronicled roadside America. Something for everyone, especially those of us who pored over album liner notes and credits in our younger, more innocent pre-internet years making connections out of the slightest pieces of information. It is good fun, and if you listen not so literally, you may just hear the connections ... or maybe not, that is okay too, one can just enjoy the vibrant tunes that Vandermark has developed for this second outing with this group. (Here is a link to the first one, Better a Rook than a Pawn.)
In the first track, the aforementioned 'Other Nichols Other Dimes...', one can indeed hear traces of Nichols' rich approach to the piano as well as well as Minutemen's directness... but maybe not right away. First we are greeted by Erez Dessel' Nord synthesizer (which produces a sound closest to a classic Fender Rhodes nowadays), as well as a solid rhythmic line from Vandermark on sax. Lily Finnegan's drums are pure rock and roll during this first stretch, and Beth McDonald fills in some punchy bass with her tuba. Then, a dissonant layering of chords from the Dessel, now using an more organ-like tone, leads to a new part of the piece. Nichols appears later, after Dessel has switched to piano, and we hear a distillation of Dixieland land jazz and modern classical, components that the influential, if not still somewhat under-recognized, pianist employed. In the final moments of the 20 minute track, Vandermark let's loose with a blast of fiery free improvisation adding a certain signature touch to the expansive piece.
'Autochrome (for Faith Ringgold) / Scratch Vocal (for Scratch Acid) / Clockwise (for Peter Greenaway) / Velocity Dub (for Joel Sternfeld),' is a centerpiece for the album. Clocking in at over 20 minutes, it starts with a driving rhythm and melody to match. Vandermark and McDonald move in counter motions with unfaltering energy. Vandermark takes an intense solo, followed by a sudden dissolving of the pulse, melody and tonality. Sheets of dissonant chords from the organ fill the space and then decay, leaving a sonic void in its place. Rumbles from the tuba, small squalls from the clarinet, stabbing tones from the piano, a splash of the cymbals fire at random intervals, the void eventually filling with expressive rhythmic chordal passages from a duo of the piano and drums.
Fast forwarding, the closer 'Winged Jaguar (for Bill Dixon and Cecil Taylor) / Flipside (for Diane Arbus and Lisette Model) / Five Dollars In A $3 World (for Lester Bowie)' is as dynamic and varied as the opener, though in different ways. The track opens with widely spaced tones, Dessel's piano plays a significant role providing explosive melodic figures in response to focused injections by Vandermark's clarinet, as well as long expansive shifting of the sonic landscape. The intensity increases and the melodic figures grow more and more syncopated until eventually colliding with the clarinet again in a nifty passage. The focus shifts again towards the end to a groove. Reinforced by the ersatz Rhodes and driven by the drums, the groove gets so deep that one is legally required to bob one's head. McDonald's effects-heavy tuba adds a delightful touch of conflict to the passage as well.
Suffice to say, at some point, it is easy to let the titles simply be titles and just enjoy the music and what one hears is as excellent as one can wish for. Edition Redux seems especially special, as its scene setting suites provide sweeping musical vistas with noteworthy sights that take inspiration from consummate sources.
Just when you think that there is little hope as the world is being
dominated by demented, authoritative rulers with reptilian tendencies, three
European bands (with one American), equipped by decades-long experience of
the Dutch The Ex, may convince you that resistance is the best defense, in
music, in lyrics, in thought and action.
Paal Nilssen-Love Circus with The Ex Guitars - Turn Thy Loose (PNL, 2025)
This is a match made in heaven. Norwegian Paal Nilssen-Love Circus -
vocalist-dancer Juliana Venter, trumpeter Thomas Johansson, alto sax player
Signe Emmeluth, accordionist Kalle Moberg, bassist Christian Meaas Svendsen
and Nilssen-Love on drums, cymbals and gongs - released its debut album
Pairs of Three (PNL, 2022) and suggested an ecstatic mix of rhythms and
melodies from the Northeast part of Brazil and Ethiopia juxtaposed jazz and
free improvisation. But Nilssen-Love wanted to shake up its pre-arranged
sets. And there is no better choice for such a mission than The Ex
guitarists - Terrie Hessels (aka Terrie Ex, who recorded three duo albums
with Nilssen-Love), Andy Moor (who with Terrie Ex, Ken Vandermark and
Nilssen-Love are the Lean Left quartet) and Arnold de Boer.
Turn Thy Loose was recorded live at Amsterdam’s Bimhuis in February 2024.
The ecstatic outcome affirms that Nilssen-Love instincts were right on spot.
Nilssen-Love had only one rule: anyone can play - or fuck -any part of any
song at any time, and play as free as possible. I was fortunate enough to
experience this uplifting, manic clash of sounds at the Music Unlimited
festival in Wels, Austria, last November, but unfortunately there will only
be a few opportunities to experience this massive rhythmic beast in the near
future.
70 minutes of ecstatic, joyful noise by one of the greatest bands around.
Archer - Sudden Dusk (Aerophonic, 2025)
Sudden Dusk is the debut of the free improvising quartet Archer - guitarist Terrie Ex,
Chicagoan sax hero Dave Rempis (on soprano, tenor and baritone saxes) and
the Norwegian rhythm section of double bass player
Jon Rune Strøm
(who plays with Nilssen-Love in his Large Unit, and the Frode Gjerstad Trio)
and drummer Tollef Østvan (who with Strøm also act as the rhythm section of Universal Indians with Joe McPhee, and
Friends & Neighbors). Sudden Dusk was recorded during the second,
American tour of Archer (following a tour in Norway in 2023) at
Constellation in Chicago and The Sugar Maple in Milwaukee in April 2024.
Ex’ rhythmic urgency, his complete irreverence to form or narrative, coupled
with a wild imagination and a Dadaist, provocative sense of humor, make him
the wild card of any outfit, and especially of Archer, with his restless
determination to deconstruct and dispose of improvisatory tropes. Rempis’
Brötzmann-like blasts of sound, his explorations of texture and timbre and
broad sonic arsenal make him the perfect foil to match that of Ex. Strøm
provides muscular bass lines while Østvang completes this powerful beast and
pushes its interplay with great momentum.
The three pieces move seamlessly between unrestrained, manic energy where Ex
and Rempis are busy in spiraling, tenacious dogfights, to surprisingly
contemplative and soulful parts, where Archer investigates subtleties of
tone and timbre. But as Rempis summarizes Sudden Dusk, it is “a carefully
calibrated balance between the pent up energy of baited breath, and the slow
release of a long exhale”.
The Ex - If Your Mirror Breaks (The Ex, 2025)
The Ex, like Nilssen-Love circus, is also a kind of dance band, and most
likely you may find that it is almost impossible to keep your body or soul
intact while listening to its new album If Your Mirror Breaks. The Ex just
celebrated its 45th anniversary and matured beautifully from an angry punk
band into an impossible-to-label, powerful quartet. The new album is
released after seven long years since the last album, 27 Passports (Ex,
2018), but, fortunately, it finds the quartet - Hessels, Moor, de Boer and
drummer-vocalist Katherina Bornefeld, recharged and in top form, ready for
new adventures.
The album erupts like a collection of ten short-story songs that offer
surrealist daydreams, calls to action, ominous warnings and bursts of
vitality tapped into the pulse of time. The album is dedicated to the late
Steve Albini (who recorded four albums of The Ex), and mastered by Bob
Weston (who played with Albini in Shellac). The cover artwork is by Hessels’
partner, Emma Fischer.
Anyone who has experience The Ex, live or on record, will recognize
immediately the buzzing, fierce and uncompromising riffs of Ex and Moor, the
possessed vocal delivery of de Boer, and Bornefeld’s unique drumming with
the distinct cowbell sound. If Your Mirror Breaks brings The Ex’
intoxicating, intense recipe to perfection. Guy Peters, The Ex’ biographer,
is absolutely right when writing that this album is for the ages, as it
“reflects the conflicting ideas and moods of its time, while pushing
forward, convinced there’s always a more viable alternative around the
corner”.
If Your Mirror Breaks begins with The Ex’ poetic take on Walt Whitman's
“Beat! Beat! Drums!” poem from 1861, with the call: “Beat beat drums, before
the judge / Beat beat drums, into the church”. It reflects the doubt and
insecurity of the current distressful times (“Monday Song” and “Wheel”), but
favors love (“The price of love is the price of life / And that's what
people should realise” in “The Evidence”, inspired by the documentary film
Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris) and passionate compassion (
Bornefeld sings “New life force unfolds for those who flow / with the song
of their souls. Always” in “Wheel”). It ends with the joyful thrust of
“Great!”, and instantly becomes part of your daily musical diet.
A fan favorite for sure - Ø£Øمد [Ahmed], the collective of Pat Thomas, Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip, and Seymour Wright delve into the works of bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, crafting vibrant, swinging, and endlessly dynamic music that seamlessly merges depth and energy, channeling a intense sense of ecstatic emotion. This performance was captured at Roulette in Brooklyn at the end of March this year. Go to Roulette's website to learn more about the concert.
Anthony Braxton stands as one of the greatest explorers of that
mysterious continent known as Avant-garde jazz. His breakthrough
album For Alto (1969) “challenged every parameter of the music,
tonal, textural, rhythmic, and structural,” according to The Penguin
Guide to Jazz Recording (may it be praised!). Eugene, recorded
twenty years later, is included in the Penguin Guide’s core
collection. Braxton’s recorded pieces are frequently identified by
abstract call letters: 40b, 23b & g, etc. Steve Lehman emerged
as a member of Braxton’s group. You can hear him on Nine
Compositions (2000) a recording devoted to Andrew Hill’s music.
The Steve Lehman trio features Lehman on alto sax, Matt Brewer on
bass, and Damion Ried on drums. Mark Turner plays tenor. This
album is a marvelous tasting menu for someone who is new to
Braxton’s compositions or needs to remember why I picked up so much
of it when I first began collecting in this direction.
I think the best cut is No. 40b, which you can find on the Anthony
Braxton Quartet’s Willisau (1991) Studio recording. It is a
conventional hard bop presentation: a four note theme, energetically
elaborated. Listening back-to-back (or back and forth) is a great
way to appreciate the genius of the ensembles across more than
thirty years. The Lehman version is rather warmer in tone. The bass
is much more distinct and supports the structure of the composition.
The dialogue between Braxton and Marilyn Crispell on piano is
replaced by a horn to horn conversation. Thematically, no one would
have trouble recognizing the second as the same composition.
The best cut for sampling all four musicians is L.A. Genes,
wonderful romp. The last cut on the album is a Monk composition:
“Trinkle, Tinkle.” It wasn’t on Braxton’s Six Monk’s Compositions
or anywhere else I looked. It is quite good. Get the Lehman album.
If you have Amazon Music or something similar, track down some of
the originals. In addition to the aforementioned recordings, I
highly recommend Braxton’s Charlie Parker Project.
You can hear more Steve Lehman with the same trio as above, but
thirteen years earlier, on Dialect Fluorescent (2012). It is worth
your time.
Sometimes, while tirelessly sifting the muddy waters in search of some sparkling golden specks, one could happen to be so lucky to get a well shaped pebble in the sieve: this record is one of these cases. The sophomore work by Stefano Leonardi and Antonio Bertoni, following their 2021 debut Viandes,Fuoco Sacro sees the duo delivering an excellent and mesmerizing record, released by the German Aut Records.
But who are we talking about? Leonardi is a self-taught flutist that along with traditional flutes also plays instruments from other cultures such as xun (China), dilli kaval (Turkey), koncovka (Slovakia), sulittus and launeddas (Sardegna). According to the bio notes of his website, he deepened and practiced improvisation with Stefano Benini and Geoff Warren, focusing on research on sound and its relationship with space, memory and time. Recordings of his original music have been released by Splasc(H) Records, Nu Bop Records, Leo Records and Astral Spirits. After long sessions spent to listen to Ian Anderson, Roland Kirk, Herbie Mann, Sam Most, James Moody, Dave Valentin, Nicola Stilo, he shifted to the likes of Jeremy Steig, Paul Horn, Yusef Lateef, then finally been struck by the less orthodox sounds of Eric Dolphy, Sam Rivers, James Newton, Julius Hemphill, Nicole Mitchell and Thomas Chapin. Bertoni, the partner in crime in this sonic adventure, is an eclectic musician with a personal, broadened vision, better known with his doppelganger Ongon, devoted to a fascinating mix of krautrock and afrocentric sounds. Trained as bassist/double bassist, he started playing metal, rock, jazz then radical impro, enlarging the scope to dance, theater and movies, before discovering the guimbri, the traditional strings instrument usually played in Morocco, Algeria and Mali and moving to new musical ethnic landscapes, without setting aside the intriguing use of electronics.
Fuoco Sacro is the amazing result from such interesting personalities. The combination of Black free jazz influences, ethnicity and electro set-up, is delivering feelings of abstract and ancestral worlds, always avoiding traditional paradigms, fusion short-cuts or pretty boring hippie-wise sounds of nature. Stefano adds the Etruscan (the pre Romans Italian civilisation) alabaster flute to his usual ammunition of flutes, while Antonio displays drums, percussion, waterphone, bolon, guimbri, ngoni and njarka violin for a final result that is never out of focus, tedious, predictable or trivial. Again, the key elements are the classy ability to chisel something intimate even inside a huge Cinerama of images that the record brings to our minds, along with the firm will to point the compass needle towards the Improv North. We are not aware of other Flutes/Drum duos, present or past (surely the Blog’s colleagues and readers will immediately refute us) but no issues at all, the crew of Stefano and Antonio will grant a really challenging trip and Fuoco Sacro is the well deserved price of admission on board.
Loyal readers of this blog may know about my ambiguous relationship
with jazz-rock and fusion. In the early 1980s I was fascinated by
musicians like Al DiMeola, Stanley Clarke (and their project Return
to Forever), the United Jazz & Rock Ensemble or Jean-Luc Ponty
because I was impressed by their virtuosity. However, I quickly got
bored of it since it often seemed to be about showing off that
virtuosity and less about authenticity, creativity, subtle ideas and
sound. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I learned to appreciate
some of my old albums again (e.g. John McLaughlin’s Inner Mounting
Flame, Weather Report’s first album or Tony Williams’s Million
Dollar Legs). Another reason were newer jazz-rock formations that I
also found exciting, such as The Nels Cline Singers, Bushman’s
Revenge or The Young Mothers. The latter, founded by the Norwegian
bassist Ingebrigt HÃ¥ker Flaten during his time in Austin/Texas,
where he lived from 2009 to 2021, actually had the goal of combining
as much cross-genre music as possible. Therefore, they first played
live extensively for several years before their first album, A
Mothers Work Is Ever Done, was released in 2014. Morose followed in
2018. Finally, HÃ¥ker Flaten moved back to Norway in 2021 and it took
until 2024 before the band managed to record a new album - quite a
long time in the free jazz scene.
If you already liked the group from their previous albums, you can
sit back and relax, because the open, various approach is still the
band’s main characteristic and the line-up has also remained the
same: Jawwaad Taylor (trumpet, rhymes, electronics and programming),
Jason Jackson (tenor and baritone sax), Stefan Gonzalez (vibraphone,
drums, percussion and voice), Jonathan F. Horne (guitar), Ingebrigt
HÃ¥ker Flaten (acoustic and electric bass) and Frank Rosaly (drums,
electronics and programming). According to the label, the
songwriting for the new album was more collective than on its
predecessors, which is reflected in an even greater stylistic range.
The Young Mothers once again present an energetic mixture of jazz,
prog-rock, hiphop, electronics and free improvisation, whereby
prefabricated ideas are juxtaposed with free improvisation.
Complexity and directness are no contradiction. However, the
question with such music is whether the result is inconsistent or
whether it has a clear line despite all the diversity. Here the
answer is definitely the latter. Despite the often surprising twists
and turns within the pieces, the music seems well thought out and
organic.
The beginning of the last and longest track on the album, “Scarlet
Woman Lodge“, is reminiscent of Miles Davis’s Get Up With It phase,
before a shouter sneaks into the piece and the guitar and drums push
the track in the direction of heavy metal. The title track and
“Ljim” are relaxed but quite intricate jazz-hip-hop pieces, and you
can’t deny echoes of Alfa Mist. “Hymn” develops away from composed
passages into classic, hard free jazz, while “Song for a Poet“ has
delicate ambient qualities.
Better If You Let It is great fun, hopefully HÃ¥ker Flaten will
manage to keep the band together. The more projects of this quality
there are, the less chance I have of losing my love for jazz-rock
again.
Better If You Let It is available on vinyl, as a CD and as a
download.
In the most recent of El Intruso's Encuesta 2024 – Periodistas Internacionales poll,
in which participating music writers are asked a series of questions asking
about the best of in many categories, drummer Devin Gray and
bassist Max Johnson made it into my choices under best composer, even though
these two are probably considered more frequently under the best drummer and
bassist category. Although no one has asked me, I thought it would be
interesting to share what prompted my decision. While I cannot claim to have
a scientifically valid selection method, both Gray's
Melt all the Guns II
and Johnson's I'll See you Again really stuck out to me as great
examples of disciplined trios featuring compositions that allowed the
individual players to express themselves freely.
Devin Gray - Melt All the Guns II (Rataplan, 2024)
Last we heard from drummer Devin Gray was the solo recording Most Definitely that mixed electronics with percussion for an expressive outing, which
itself had followed in the a duo recording with fellow drummer and electronics experimenter Gerald Cleaver, 27 Lick, a few years earlier. Orienting here back to more melodic terrains,
Gray reconnects with his compelling trumpet, piano and drums trio with a
lively set of tunes.
The trio on Melt All the Guns II is a continuation of Gray's trio
with trumpeter Ralph Alessi and pianist Angelica Sanchez with whom he
released a self-titled EP in 2021.
Now, on this full-length recording, we meet French pianist Myslaure
Augustin, a convert from the classical piano world who studied with
trumpeter Ralph Alessi in Switzerland. Augustin does a commendable job
bringing energy to the compositions, starting from the jaunty grooves of the
opener 'East Berlin 2024' to the fractured solo in the swooning
'Administration Rulez' and the sparsely beautiful arpeggios on the
ruminative opening of "No More Walls.'
Alessi's trumpet is sharp and precise, imbuing the clear melodic statements
both a lithe laser focus and an emotional gravity. Again the opener, 'East
Berlin 2024,' after the drums and piano introduce the underlying groove, the
trumpet goes from highlighting the contours to delivering a forceful melodic
statement. On the other side, Alessi's work on '77 Posaunen' is probing,
seemingly in a questioning mode with the piano. On the closer, 'Broom Lyfe,'
Alessi adopts a muted tone, employed to a melancholic end. The track
provides a contemplative ending to an energetic recording.
I haven't singled out Grey's singular contributions here, but it is his
compositions that really make their mark here. It is safe to say,
however, that he is everywhere, his expressive playing supporting, guiding
and shaping each track of this excellent album.
Max Johnson - I'll See You Again (Adhyâropa Records, 2024)
One thing that both of these recordings have in common is introducing newer
names on the scene. Not that Johnson is an old name himself, only in his
mid-30s, Johnson has a mind-boggling discography and feet in New Music,
bluegrass, modern and free-jazz (no, he's not a quadruped, it's just a saying). Currently a doctoral candidate and an active educator, Johnson
still finds time to make some very impressive music. Though I'm not sure if
I'll See You Again still qualifies as his latest, it certainly is a
hell of a trio recording, that in addition to featuring his own playing,
introduces some newer faces on the scene, namely Neta Ranaan on tenor
saxophone and Eliza Salem on drums.
From the moment that the feisty opener, 'Barberous Jape,' explodes from the
speakers, Ranaan is ready. She burns through the head, a vigorous post-bop
melody played over a syncopated rhythm and takes the first solo as Johnson
and Salem drive the piece forward. After a slowly building solo, the way is
cleared for Johnson's hearty bass solo, which segues seamlessly into a nuanced drum
solo from Salem. The group comes back together, reprising the head - a
classic compositional form and a high class performance. The next track,
'Chestnut Squid,' is a more contemplative tune, Ranaan begins with a legato
melody and soon lets Johnson take over laying the songs
foundations. 'Tiny Beautiful' is a ballad but with some bite, while
'Scribbles' cooks along at mid-tempo, allowing the melodic nature
improvisational approach to boil at an unhurried pace. The closer 'Farewell
to Old Friends' showcases the most heartfelt piece of the album.
Starting with melody that is likely encoded somewhere in our cultural DNA - a bit of
Old Lang Syne, a bit of an old American folk-song that you maybe sung in
music class in your New Jersey elementary school, and every bit as evocative
as it should be. Ranaan treats the melody achingly, lending it a feeling of loss and
resilience that sticks around after the music fades.
A solid piece of work from this working trio that is both a great example of
Johnson's compelling compositional work and a perfect introduction to Ranaan
and Salem's playing, if you don't know them already.
Emerging out of a canceled-gig-turned-studio-session, Skin of a Drum is the
quartet of Pavel Aleshin, Serena Pagani, Sascha Stadlmeier, and William
Rossi. (Disclaimer: Rossi is a fellow contributor to FJB.) Pagani,
Stadlmeier and Rossi play guitars, Aleshin electronics, and all four
contribute various other effects, loops, objects, and processing and to
which Pagani also adds her voice. Alexithymiais their first
release and apart from a quick warm-up session, the first meeting of these
four musicians.
Alexithymia is a psychological trait wherein a person has difficulty
comprehending and expressing emotions. Given the fluid and ambiguous nature
of Alexithymia the album, it is a perfect title. The paints a
picture finely hued, but also enigmatic. First, the sounds are often
indeterminate. One hears drone, glitches, whispers, gurgles, bubbles,
fragments of guitar, heavy distorted chords, howls, synthesized (?) natural
sounds, space sounds. This is soundscaping, but with an emphasis on
collaboration – real time and in the production stages – and live,
in-the-moment improvisation, the more human elements of that oft-sterile
practice. That humanity is also embodied in Pagani’s vocals, which range
from the almost unrecognizable to crisp near-operatics (about two-thirds
in) and the array of guitar sounds that periodically pop out of and
intermingle with the less placeable elements.
The overall effect is that of a storm and, given the title, an internal
storm of inarticulable and maybe inexact feelings. In that ambiguity lies
the pull of this release. It is not a perfect expression of love or anger
or contentment. Rather, it is, by design, a confused excavation of some
emotion(s), not quite identifiable, but clearly impactful and, in its
inexact state, disruptive and unnerving. But then, near the end, a series
of strums, then an all-out chordal melody, over which Pagani sings, breaks
out, briefly evoking Fushitsusha’s blackened prom ballads (especially the
stunning track 8 on3/4). The winds still gust until the end,
offering a much welcome passage of reconciliation that confirms just how
well-crafted and thought-out all this cacophony is.
Alexithymiais available as a download and CD from Bandcamp:
