Lao Dan / Deng Boyu

Nicolas Field & Albert Cirera

Live at Dragon

FMR 557-1119

Phil Hargreaves & Richard Harrison

Fall Through the Infinite

No Label No #

Collating a trio of horn/percussion duos recorded in three countries shows how much can be expressed in the format in spite of any perceived textural limitations. Long a favorite of improvisers, these pairs make full use of every instrumental texture.

Duo by accident, Catalan soprano/tenor saxophonist Albert Cirera who plays with the likes of Zlatko Kaučič and British-Swiss drummer Nicolas Field, who has worked with Otomo Yoshihide among others, express themselves in an intense four-part improvisation, created on the spur-of-the-moment when their third band mate was unable to make this Poznan gig. A comeback from a multi-year debilitating illness, the UK’s Phil Hargreaves, who had worked with Simon H. Fell, adds flute to his tenor and soprano saxophone during 11 energetic Liverpool-recorded tracks alongside the drum and objects of Richard Harrison. Sophisticated adaptation of the Energy Music that fits flourished around the time of the Cultural Revolution, Chinese alto saxophonist/flutist Lao Dan, who has traded licks with Paul Flaherty, joins with Inner Mongolian percussionist Deng Boyu, who is also involved in Rock and electronics, for a suite and individual tracks from Gunagzhou that link The Middle Kingdom to modern kinetics.

Most instrumentally stripped-down of the duos, Cirera and Field build to crescendos and diminish with diminuendos during fluidly undulating tracks that feed into one another. High-pitched reed bites, smears and irregularly vibrated split tones meet spectacular press rolls and emphasized cymbal clangs from Field may take up a good part of Live at Dragon’s sonic real estate. But at the same time moderated nerve beats and syncopated rhythmic fragments plus low-pitched reed slides and puffs make up other sequences. No matter how many timbral eruptions are clocked, this light-dark balance is maintained. So if Cirera appears to be suturing his sax to unvaryingly opaque blasts or eviscerating tones from deep inside his horn’s body tube, heightened squeaks bring him back to the contemplative exposition. Linear and lighter asides exist all the way to the concluding “Live at Dragon Part 4”. Here a defining tone diminishing from circular breathed treble feed trills and anchored press roll and cymbal clangs presage theme resolution.

Seemingly making up for the lost time when so-called Western music was discouraged in China, Dan’s initial solos could be Type A atonal. As the almost continuous banshee-like cries become more expressive and extended as the session evolves, their scope inflates to organ-like tremors. For his part Boyu’s metallic rim slaps, cymbal shakes and drum rumbles prod and crunch alongside high-pitched scream yet manage to maintain rhythmic solidarity and melodic suggestions. “Waltzing on the Square” is the most subversive of the single tunes. Without breaking the tempo and flow it successfully alternates split tone glissandi that could have been found on a 1960s ESP Disk with interludes in waltz time. One or both players add mumbling and yelping vocalize to the tune, and these verbalizations are put to greater use on the three-part “Supernatural Suite”. Sequences are defined as much by Chinese flute puffs and bell-tree hanging Sino music shakes as Occidental transverse arabesque flutters and backbeat drum pounding. Reaching a climax of skyscraper-high flute peeps at the midpoint, the narrative then pivots to mid-range pitches and percussion clatters. The final “Cloud above My Head, Will You Float on to Chicago” melds woody drum rebounds with scooped or whistling reed cries. Ending with bagpipe chanter-like drones the program fades alongside positioned drum top pops.

Evidently fully recovered, Hargreaves tears into the improvisations with the fire, fury and finesse he exhibited earlier in this century. Moving among mid-range reed bites, undulating altissimo timbres and shattering snarls the horn player is shadowed by beats from Harrison that sound the backbeats and shuffles of a regular kit at points, and elsewhere answer unusual saxophone scoops and nasal doits with cymbal shakes, wood slaps and doubled pops that sound like he’s hitting both sides of a Japanese pellet drum. The most dramatic instance of his percussion prowess and Hargreaves’ reed command occurs on the nuanced “The Zealot in Velvet”. Avant-mainstream, the piece interlocks pellet-drum-like rebounds with quiet kit slaps and rumbles, suggesting that Harrison has more limbs than four. Meanwhile Hargreaves alternates snarls and stutters with smooth slides, leading to a logically reflective ending. Otherwise the tracks range from those during which tonal flute splays turn to horizontal story telling matched with restrained percussion shuffles and cymbal popping to those that feature energetic saxophone multiphonics easing into low key slurps. The penultimate “Granma Moment” is alive with maracas-and-chains shakes plus bass drum pounding along with thin soprano sax quacks. But like similar motifs on the rest of the disc, this moment is Hargreaves’ rather than Grandma’s since it confirms he’s back to notable playing.

Although Liverpool may not be as exotic a recoding location as Poznan or Gunagzhou, the inspiration exhibited by all three duos belies austere instrumentation

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Dragon: 1. Live at Dragon Part 1 2. Live at Dragon Part 2 3. Live at Dragon Part 3 4. Live at Dragon Part 4

Personnel: Dragon: Albert Cirera (soprano and tenor saxophones) and Nicolas Field (drums)

Track Listing: TuTu: 1, The Prophecy 2. Tournament of Chpsticks 3.Waltzing on the Square / Supernatural Suite: 4. 1st Movement: The Wordless Ocean 5. 2nd Movement: Grass Against The Wind 6.3rd Movement: Cloud above My Head, Will You Float On to Chicago?

Personnel: TuTu: Lao Dan (alto saxophone and Chinese flute) and Deng Boyu (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Infinite: 1. Pool 2. Trigon 3. Reach for the Tar 4. Approach, The Mechanoid 5. Paste & Fallmost 6. Tadpole, Let Me Kiss You 7. Fourth / Ack Ack Ack 8.Constellations of Asphalt 9.The Zealot in Velvet 10. Granma Moment 11. Fall Through the Infinite

Personnel: Infinite: Phil Hargreaves (soprano and tenor saxophones and flute) and Richard Harrison (drums and objects)