There’s not much to go on about this recording from Berlin that dates to 2023. But clearly this is avant-garde. Tune titles are one thing. ‘Differential Spider,’ ‘Jetsam,’ ‘Dissipate,’ ‘Enervated,’ ‘Ten of Wands,’ and ‘Deadblow Hammer’. If lumped together they belong in a subset of curiosities while not being outlandishly arcane. But unspoken words aren’t music so these – like all words – are fairly meaningless when latched on to that most mysterious of arts, music.
Simply words then. Or feel free to spool off in any random direction to see what the naming is perhaps hinting at. Loss, reduction, or the dissipation of energy or burden spring to mind; a mechanical part distributing force, cargo thrown overboard, energy scattered, strength drained, burdens overwhelming, a tool absorbing impact. Each term involves something being lessened, lost, or dispersed.
Clear as mud then when you actually hear the music rather than just read the words. Oh and Exhaust – unless a free-jazz hater (because you just won’t even try to get it and just dismiss the style) isn’t exhausting. This trio album is given the idiom radically abstract. Sax, piano, drums do the music’s bidding. They could be any instrument playing in a formation.
The sax of Camila Nebbia – whose style is a little like Ingrid Laubrock’s – may play as on ‘Ten of Wands’ in a wildly different key to the piano lines of Kit Downes before both then choose other wildly different keys in further sections of their free improvisations.
As for the drum line of Andrew Lisle on the same piece it’s what Rashied Ali termed multi-directional. He doesn’t bother about strict time and rolls over all demarcations. There’s no obvious pulse. But it works. His approach is also a little like Ches Smith’s.
‘Deadblow Hammer’ you could call a ballad certainly at the beginning. But that term while pretty accurate on one level is an irrelevance with this kind of collective improvisation. Certainly elegiac to begin with Nebbia’s sound is strong and pure and leads the others in a certain sense but there is a democracy. She doesn’t play tunes.
Nebbia is from Argentina, her albums include 2023’s scalding Una ofrenda a la ausencia also issued by Relative Pitch. What a great way to start the new listening week – makes a change from the tweeness and false nostalgia that often dominates among the new release mix.
Official release date is Friday. Hear Nebbia and Lisle with Colin Webster and Caius Williams at the Vortex, London on 4 July
MORE FROM MARLBANK
Recognition
