Mahall / Dorner / Roder / Jennessen

Die Enttauschung

Label: Intakt Country: Switzerland

"Translated to "the disappointment", Die Ettäuschung's figurative tongue fixes firmly in collective jowl even before the first note sounds. A Berlin-based quartet comprised of Rudi Mahall, Axel Dörner, Jan Roder and Uli Jennessen, the ensemble's previous work has largely been in a repertory vein, mostly mining the mother Monk lode. Their teaming with Alex von Schlippenbach for Monk's Casino (also on Intakt) brought such pursuits to full flower. This album, their fourth, marks a redirect to their own compositions though ample amounts of Monk and Ornette are still audible in the corkscrew freebop that springs from their own pens and instruments.

Seventeen cuts on the docket necessitate economical time spans, often not much more than space enough to get in and get out. A tightly whorled head followed by terse overlapping solos and occasional breaks for bass and or drums represent the common schematic, though snatches of calypso ("Drive it Down the Piano"), samba ("Very Goode"), and other folk forms enter the songbook on occasion. Dörner carves modest space for extended techniques, threading in dissonant texture-based detours amidst the more structured playing on pieces like "Vorwärts - Rückwärts". The fit is ramshackle in spots, but the relative coarseness undercutting some of the charts works to the quartet's advantage in sustaining improvisatory friction.

Mahall and Dörner make for an uncommonly attuned pairing, particularly in the area of pitch production with the Mahall''s upper and middle register work on bass clarinet sounding oddly akin to an alto saxophone. Only sparingly does he revel in his reed's cavernous capabilities and I found myself wanting for more of such ribald manuevers on occasion. Roder and Jenessen are similarly suited to each others sensibilities on the rhythmic side, but the more galvanizing interplay often transpires between the horns. The audio balance also seems to favor the frontline, with Roder sometimes a shade muddy in the mix. Cover art is the same Zappa-esque collage style of Mahall's earlier solo effort for Psi and a fine complement to the music. If, on the off chance, these four are striving to live up to the strict letter of their chosen sobriquet then it's safe to say they fail miserably in the enterprise."-Derek Taylor