Reviews

Fabian Dudek, This Every Place, Traumton ***1/2

marlbankUpdated 14 May 20251 Mins read

Personnel: Fabian Dudek, alto saxophone, flute, composition; Ingrid Laubrock, soprano and tenor saxophones; Felix Hauptmann: piano, synthesiser; David Helm, bass; Fabian Arends, drums.

Let’s hope this doesn’t fall between the cracks. A slender four tracks – although one among these is an ear popping 17 min-plus whopper – it’s been a great year for Ingrid Laubrock’s profile given that the saxophonist is on the formidable Nels Cline Consentrik Quartet album on Blue Note that hoovered up more than a paltry few column inches earlier this year justifiably. It is one of the year’s most original albums. Laubrock contributed a lot to its success.

And does here too. To be frank I haven’t heard much so far of Laubrock’s fellow saxophonist Fabian Dudek who is the leader on This Every Place although he has picked up plenty of kudos in Germany to date.

His style is spiky and there is a punkish intensity to some of the passages.

Bassist David Helm is fairly inconspicuous on opener ‘Ice House Celebration’ but he knows how to leverage up the beat when he needs to and his role becomes more obvious later on.

A band like Led Bib is a reasonable point of comparison – certainly this has a free-ish intensity to it that connects with what Mark Holub and his comrades achieved in the heyday of that band particularly on the Babel releases such as 2006’s Sizewell Tea. ‘Where Thoughts Provoke’ here is Ornette-ish and enjoyable for that.

But the wildest number – and you come to a record such as This Every Place looking for at least the hint of wildness – coaxed along by Felix Hauptmann taut and staccato on piano is ‘Streetlight Dawn’ which is something of a thrill.