The Squid's Ear
Writing about improvised, contemporary, experimental and unusual music,
following the activities of Squidco...
  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!

The Squid's Ear
Facebook: Squidco Sales



Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Larry Ochs / Nels Cline/ Gerald Cleaver 
  What is to be Done
  (Clean Feed) 


  
   review by Paul Serralheiro
  2019-07-08
Larry Ochs / Nels Cline/ Gerald Cleaver: What is to be Done (Clean Feed)

The three improvisations on this disc were taken from sessions recorded in 2016 in Richmond, Virginia. The three musicians each bring a distinct voice to the table, but the blend is organically coherent with very satisfying layers of sound in a free but thoughtfully structured improvisational approach. The players play to the compositions with Olympian chops that serve the group concept in startling ways.

"Outcries Rousing" is the 20-minute opening piece of the triptych that maintains a rhythmic insistence throughout, marching ever forward on a taut regime of Gerald Cleaver's tom-tom-heavy persistence over which Larry Och's saxophone's squiggles and smears and blasts find a happy open sea. Nels Cline's guitar fills in the canvas with a broad wash of chords thrummed in an evolving manner, building and receding like waves along a pebbled beach. Cline also works in some fascinating angular lines made up of complex intervallic shapes and size, along with some electronic effects that include deconstruction of guitar clichés and really cool otherworldly digital throughput configurations.

The quieter, more acoustic middle tune, "A Pause, A Rose" grows from an acoustic-meets-electronics opening lyrical passage articulated by Cline, with ever surprising guitar sounds. Post-modern to the hilt, Cline's playing is discontinuous pastiche, with fragmented logic and an ever-attentive sense of the rightness of the musical effect-of-the-moment, while drums and sax send out their particular strands of sonic material in sympathetically coordinated musical expression. The trick with this kind of music is to think like a composer, not an instrumental soloist, per se; it's about the musical meaning and form. These three musicians show a particularly gifted approach to this, with playing that is tuned in and expressive.

The epic final piece of the triptych, "Shimmer Intend Spark Groove Defend", sounds as imperative and anthem-like as its title suggests, with bold and purposeful direction and development of musical thought that seems predestined, as if the three players were all of one mind, heart and body, making for definitely fine improvised music.







Comments and Feedback:



The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Berlin Art Quartet (
Schubert /
Bauer /
Muller /
Bruggemann):
Live At MIM
(Unisono Records)



Jimmy Lyons:
Rivbea Live! Series,
Volume 3
(NoBusiness)



Erik Klinga:
Elusive Shimmer
(thanatosis produktion)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj /
Mike Majkowski /
Magda Mayas /
Tony Buck):
Love
(thanatosis produktion /
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Brass Clouds:
Escape Vessels
(Bathysphere Records)



Fire! Orchestra:
Echoes
[2 CDs]
(Rune Grammofon)



Sophie Agnel /
John Edwards /
Steve Noble:
Three On A Match
(Otoroku)



Satoko Fujii
This is It! (
w/
Natsuki Tamura /
Takashi Itani):
Message
(Libra)



Sorry For Laughing (
G. Whitlow /
M. Bates /
Dave-Id /
E. Ka-Spel):
Rain Flowers
[2 CDS]
(Klanggalerie)



New Origin (
feat. Christoph Rocher /
Joe Fonda /
Harvey Sorge):
The Poet Walks
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Simon Nabatov:
Agree to Disagree
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Von Schlippenbach, Alexander /
Barry Altschul Quartet w/
Joe Fonda &
Rudi Mahal:
Free Flow
[2 CDs]
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Thelonious Monk with
Sonny Rollins:
1953 To 1957
Revisited
(ezz-thetics by
Hat Hut Records
Ltd)



Daniel Carter /
Ayumi Ishito /
George Draguns /
Ed Wilcox:
Makeshift Spirituals
(577 Records)



Kory Reeder:
Homestead
(Another Timbre)



John Cage:
Chamber Works 1943-1951
(Another Timbre)



Josh Sinton:
Couloir &
Book Of Practitioners
Vol. 2
Book "W"
[2 CDs]
(FiP recordings)



Elliott Sharp /
Scott Fields:
Reimsi Geara
(Relative Pitch)



KnCurrent (
Brennan /
Cooper-Moore /
Davis /
Hwang):
KnCurrent
(Deep Dish)



Biota:
Measured Not Found
(Recommended Records)







Squidco









The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (1763)