Ballister

Rempis/Harnik/Lonberg-Holm/Daisy
Earscratcher
Aerophonic AR 37

Peripatetic American improvisers, saxophonist Dave Rempis and cellist Fred Longberg-Holm spend a lot of time in Europe. Not to be panglossian about it, but that’s where much of the work is. Along the way the two have established ensembles with Continentals. These European sets, recorded three years apart with no letdown in impulse and innovation, demonstrate why. Ballister is a long-running trio featuring the two plus forceful Norwegian percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love, who has likely been part of as many creative music configurations as the two combined. Earscratcher is a more recent affiliation. On it Longberg-Holm and Rempis are joined by fellow Chicagoan Tim Daisy on drums and Austrian pianist Elisabeth Harnik, who often plays with Joëlle Léandre,

Harkening back to the freest of Free Jazz’s heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, Rempis, Lonberg-Holm and Nilssen-Love hit with accelerated energy and don’t flag during the two intense and elongated selections. As the drummer rumbles and pops, the saxophonist’s fluttering altissimo cries soar and slide while the cellist saws and strokes tones from his instrument, sometimes torquing it to yowling cries with processing. Twanging string pitches and dynamic stops plus multiple cymbal resonations and cow bells slaps consistently push reed interpolations to strained squeaks, elevated screams and wounded animal cries. But energy doesn’t prevent Rempis from maintaining a thematic whole along with many theme variations. The consistent progression retention also doesn’t prevent Lonberg-Holm’s sul ponticello string shakes and oscillated crackles, intermittent drum honks and extended reed slurs and doits from appearing and dissolving during the course of  the program. Even as triple textures squall to faster speeds and high pitches, tandem integration remains, especially at the climax at the more than 28-minute “Strapling”. The same strategy is followed on the slightly shorter second improvisation. Again despite squalling reed split tones, pressurized arco runs and unrelentless tom-tom  pounding from the drummer, a constant narrative  is maintained through advanced deviations. By the climax, a 21^st Century interpretation of a rollicking  finger-snapper, andante cohesion leads to the finale of a widening reed shudder.

Divided among three tracks instead of two, Earscratcher follows a similar trajectory with two important differences. Unlike Nilssen-Love’s high-pressure expositions, Daisy is more of a colorist, and Harnik’s piano creates melodic as well as rhythmic possibilities. That means for almost every inclination towards lyricism with swirling glissandi or steadying unrolling keyboard pattern, equivalent instances of pedal point pressure, hearty strums across internal piano strings pivot the interaction towards the unexpected. Because of quartet interaction as well, the time and tempo is further stretched with double-stopping cello string sawing, reed spetrofluctuation as well as sophisticated ratamacues, nerve beats and press rolls from Daisy. Contrapuntal and broken octave deliberations from all are featured throughout. And these deepen to become almost claustrophobic as each instrumentalist presents his or her theme variations simultaneously with individual methodical narrative examinations widened, balanced and harmonized.

This ricochet between euphonic and uneven reaches a climax during the concluding “Penggaruk Telinga”. As scrapped cello strings align with broken-chord growls from the saxophonist, percussion rebounds and stop-start chording from the pianist, the drift towards unsegmented Free Jazz seems to be cemented. But just before the midpoint Harnik sounds out a simple melody, which is picked up sand commented on by the others. Besides tongue stops Rempis creates story telling suggestions as gong-like cymbal resonations and harmonic cello string slides help shift the keyboard back to gentling notes which augurs the final four-part connection. A final gong echo completes the piece.

With the skills of European innovators at the same level or in some cases higher than North American players as demonstrated here, it’s easy to see how temporary musical pilgrimages have become commonplace during this century.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Chrysopoeia: 1. Strapling   2. Muffit

Personnel: Chrysopoeia: Dave Rempis (alto and tenor saxophones); Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello and electronics) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Earscratcher: 1. Ohrenkratzer 2.Mimikaki 3.Penggaruk Telinga

Personnel: Earscratcher: Dave Rempis (alto saxophone); Elisabeth Harnik (piano); Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello and electronics) and Tim Daisy (drums)