Stefan Keune / Erhard Hirt / Hans Schneider / Paul Lytton

Neumann/Gutvik/Håker Flaten/Nilssen-Love

New Dance

PNL Records PNL 051

A mixture of veteran and slightly younger Free Musicians unite these European sessions. While neither age nor experience define the quartets’ collective improvisations, one is more solo oriented than the other. That would be New Dance, recorded at a live Oslo concert uniting alto saxophonist Carl Magnus Neumann who has been playing Free Jazz since the 1960s, with three younger Norwegian improvisers, guitarist Ketil Gutvik, percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love and bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. The latter two have worked with numerous advanced players and in PNL’s big band, while the guitarist has played with the likes of Kjetil Møster and Harald Fetveit.

The situation is almost exactly reversed on XPACT II. Starting in the 1970s, Germans, bassist Hans Schneider and guitarist Erhard Hirt and British percussionist Paul Lytton made up the original XPACT group with woodwind player Wolfgang Fuchs, as well as being members of the King Übü Orchestrü and many other configurations. Fuchs died in 2016, so the quartet’s newest member is another German, tenor saxophonist, Stefan Keune, who also played regularly with the late John Russell.

Easily connecting with the others’ wave length, Keune’s sophisticated strategy of reed flutters, tongue squalls and strained squawks is given full exposure on the nearly half-hour, aptly named opener, “Restart”. However the timbral aesthetic of the quartet has evolved over the years since Lytrton has expanded his percussion kit with objects and laptop programming. That means that his voltage shuffles are now as prominent as drum rolls and maracas-like rattles. Balancing this tonal expansion are Schneider’s low-pitched string strokes and Hirt’s frails that encompass singular fingering and heel-of-hand rhythms. Almost the definition of EuroImprov, the interaction at points sinks down to distant tones with watery pumps and flowing aviary squeaks. Although the exposition hardens and accelerates in loudness at the midpoint it also becomes more diffuse, with banjo-like string clangs and squalling reed split tones. Bowed bass lines and ringing guitar chords join with wave forms to create an ostinato including the occasional organ-like tremolo echoes. Finally the concluding sequence inflates in volume with saxophone tongue pops, guitar flanges and a fluid bass pulse leading to a conclusive expression.

Mini-me variations, the shorter subsequent tracks elaborate and refine this strategy with cogwheel-like ratcheting, pinched squeals and reflux flattement from the saxophone, cymbal echoes electrified guitar string variations and thumping or stroking bass projections. Throughout a broken octave balance is maintained between throbbing pressure and brighter connectivity.

Centrepiece of New Dance in contrast is its nearly 31-minute title track, with the shorter tunes building up to an away from it. Beginning in full Free Jazz mode with Nilssen-Love’s pounding martial ruffs, buzzing double bass strokes and Neumann squealing, smearing, splintering and squirting a kaleidoscope of irregular vibrations, Gutvik’s dexterous slurred fingering signals the addition of contemporary freedoms. Moving through sequences of intensity and respite sections are dedicated to solos. Håker Flaten’s heavy buzzes with perfectly rounded thumps plus thick arco runs are expressed, as are indirect accents from deadened guitar strings or strident drum scratches. Working duo motifs such as drum backbeat power mated with double bass pumps or with metallic guitar strokes, cohesion is maintained throughout. A final sequence of the drummer’s Mylar pats and bass drum pops reprises the initial intensity, with emphasis on string jabs and treble-pitched clangs. The most telling delineation of this old-new connection is the subsequent “Det er Kjaelighet”, where the bassist’s relaxed adagio walking meets the saxophonist’s story telling side. With bugling cries and clarion expansions, Neumann manages to express technique and tenderness in the same breaths as Gutvik’s singular plinks and downward echoes first complement than construct a response to the narrative.

More than half a century after it first became common currency Free Music is alive and well in Northern Europe. On the evidence here it’s still being played by some of its original practitioners with new ideas interpolated from slightly younger generations.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: XPACT: 1. Restart 2. Immersion 3. In Between 4. After All

Personnel: XPACT: Stefan Keune (tenor saxophone); Erhard Hirt (guitar and electronics): Hans Schneider (bass) and Paul Lytton (laptop and percussion objects)

Track Listing: Dance: 1. Å så et Fro 2. New Dance 3. Det er Kjaelighet 4. Dett var Dett

Personnel: Dance: Carl Magnus Neumann (alto saxophone); Ketil Gutvik (acoustic and electric guitars); Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums and percussion)