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This review is part of the Musings Collection - see the index here.
Rohstoff: Fullmoonimprovisations 1999/2000 Tryllehaven
(Intuitive: IRCD002)
Felix Becker, Ivan Vincze, Carl Bergstrom-Nielsen, Laszlo Bela Kovacs, Patricia Roncayolo, Niseema Munk-Madsen, Daniel Briegleb, Janos Veto Lavman, Kaszon Kovacz, Mikkel Hornnes, Ervin Janos Lazar, Thomas Bredsdorff, Ildiko Ungvary (instrumentation not specified)Bill Cole: The Untempered Ensemble, Duets & Solos Vol 1
(Boxholder: BXH001)
Bill Cole (reeds), Cooper-More (horizontal hoe-handle harp, diddley bow), Warren Smith (percussion), William Parker (bass, one track only)
There is a particular approach to improvisation which can seem slightly strange when you first encounter it, although it's been around in free improv at least since the days of the AACM, and so probably since free improv existed at all. This approach finds a commonality with field recordings of "exotic" musics rather than with the studio, and seeks, one way or another, to embrace that commonality in a non-contradictory way.
Rohstoff represent one way of doing this. Most of their CD was recorded outside, in quite noisy environments and without sophisticated equipment. Although some are recognisable and familiar, most of the instruments sound either exotic or home-made. Vocal outbursts are common, too, and what with the group's tendency towards occasional pulsed rhythms and melodic-harmonic "riffs" one is rather strongly reminded of the music of the poorest and most isolated parts of West Africa. There is a sense that this music is supposed to be part of an environment both natural and, as it turns out, technological, as a railway station tannoy locates this apparently rural music in an urban setting, indeed in one of Europe's cultural centres.
This, then, is a long way from mere ethno-forgery or any attempt to reach for some authentic, "natural" way of making music. This is music which is often funny and sometimes perverse -- take the completely incongruous eleventh track, a skewed acid jazz pastiche which bears no relation to anything else on the disk, or its successor: "put you CD player on repeat", says the liner, but the effect is just that you hear the same, perfectly complete piece over and over again. Bizarrely compelling, these recordings dig down into something conceptually very deep in the free improv tradition, but they're musically lively enough to be much more than just ideas. The Copenhagen scene is a rich one, and the arrival of new label Intuitive to document it is most welcome.
Bill Cole is also working in an area clearly influenced by field recordings, although it's hard to imagine a more different record from Rohstoff's. Cole is a composer whose music allows plenty of space for improvisation; he is also an expert performer on a range of double-reed instruments, flutes and other things you blow into, and his playing and compositional styles clearly indicate a long and profound study of middle-Eastern and North African musics.
Here we find him solo (on Western flute and then on the Middle-Eastern Shenai) and in duet with Cooper-Moore, Smith and Parker. Cooper-Moore's self-made African instruments are a revelation; the harp has a piercingly beautiful, light sound, while the diddley-bow sounds like an infinitely flexible bass guitar, played slap-style, of course. The former is paired with Cole on didgeridoo, while for the second he switches again to shenai. In effect, this means that they swap accompanying duties between the two tracks, and the results are extremely lovely. Cole's shenai is dazzlingly felicitous, something like Braxton but with far fewer roots in jazz
The same pattern holds for duets with Smith. In the first, Cole's Tibetan trumpet provides a weird, meandering undercurrent for Smith's spacious gong solo; Cole switches back to shenai and Smith to the drum kit for their second pieces, a melodic workout which free jazz fans will find perfectly recognisable.
There's only one duet with Parker (a second one will appear on Volume 2, out later this year), but it's a treat. They play the melody with wonderful flexibility, and the arco bass blends perfectly with the Chinese piri, leading to an often frantically inventive jam. Overall, the solos are lovely, but just a bit less edgy and exciting than the duets, as if Cole benefits strongly from the interaction.
Cole is clearly a superb player, and is making a kind of music which tends to be looked down on as a novelty act. It may well be hard to categorise, but it's hugely rewarding to listen to. Recommended.