Fred Van Hove, Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers, Paul Lytton - Asynchronous

Fred Van Hove: piano
Paul Dunmall: tenor saxophone
Paul Rogers: bass
Paul Lytton: drums

This is a quartet of 1970s-vintage European free-improvisers – three out of four called Paul – still warming to the task in 2008. Saxist and bass clarinettist Paul Dunmall's model was Evan Parker, while Paul Lytton actually played drums with Parker for years. Bass virtuoso Paul Rogers has spanned the postbop and improv scenes here and in New York, and Belgian pianist and movie composer Fred Van Hove started as a bebopper in the late 50s, then loosened up to spar with German sax free-blaster Peter Brötzmann. All that spontaneous music-making was caught at the Europa jazz festival in Le Mans in May 2008. There are only two tracks: one lasting 46 minutes and one of 15 minutes, with Dunmall's big, rounded sound and spiralling runs bursting out of a low-key overture, and then engaging in a long, dignified dance with Rogers's dark bowed chords. Dunmall sometimes builds solos in patterns of brief, squirted sounds a la Evan Parker, but he stays closer to post-Coltrane tonality for more of the time. Meanwhile, Van Hove unleashes glittering streams of notes with a Cecil Tayloresque intensity; his solo on the first track has an orchestral scope. The shorter episode begins as a bass drone pulsating like a didgeridoo, builds to the best full-on free-playing on the album, shifts to a lament-like section, a briefly resurfacing turmoil, and then evaporates into silence. An attentive and responsive quartet of experts in the genre. (from guardian)

2010 ASYNCHRONUS

Paul Dunmall & Chris Corsano - Identical Sunsets

Paul Dunmall: tenor saxophone, border pipes
Chris Corsano: drums

Best known for his collaborations with people like Paul Flaherty, Michael Flower and Thurston Moore as well as a year-and-a-half stint as the drummer for Björk's Volta tour, Chris Corsano is widely considered to be one of the best and most adaptive drummers of his generation. Equally adaptive is UK saxophone giant, Paul Dunmall, who has worked disparately with jazz greats like Alice Coltrane and Evan Parker as well as funk and folk acts like Johnny Guitar Watson and Dando Shaft.

After a chance meeting in a taxi line at Lisbon Airport, a surreal intertwining of tours emanated. In between the lasers, confetti and face-painted fans at Plymouth Pavillions and Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Chris left the Björk mega-tour to get down to business alongside the prolific and imaginative Dunmall for some vital improvisation at Slak Bar in Cheltenham, England.

This wonderfully recorded live set begins with Dunmall swirling away on the border pipes (he may be the preeminent improvisor using bagpipes). What follows is an impulsive and lyrical improvisation, alternatingly sparse and impossibly textured. Corsano's skittering marries perfectly with Dunmall's rapid-fire lines. The melodies are expertly uncoiled so that they remain charged whether the tempo is at full speed or crawling. The set ends furiously and with the impression that this duo was fated to work together.

2010 IDENTICAL SUNSETS