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




Heard In

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


  Coleman / Ederer / Malone / Mills / Gold / Hill / Kordik 
  Widdershins
  (Matchless Recordings) 


  
   review by John Eyles
  2023-11-06
Coleman / Ederer / Malone / Mills / Gold / Hill / Kordik: Widdershins (Matchless Recordings)

June 22nd 2022 was the eightieth birthday of the esteemed London-born drummer Eddie Prévost. To mark the occasion, on four Saturday evenings in July 2022, Café Oto hosted concerts celebrating different aspects of Prevost's music and his contributions to improvised music. On July 23rd 2022, the third of the series, "Workshop Concert", celebrated the weekly Friday evening two-hour improvisation workshop which Prévost inaugurated in November 1999. Sixteen musicians were scheduled to join Prévost at Oto that evening but, due to covid, neither guitarist NO Moore nor Prévost himself could attend. The fifteen musicians who did attend included some who stretched right back to the start of the workshop, including guitarist Ross Lambert who was at the very first workshop. The international nature of workshop attendees was emphasised by the presence of vocalist Iris Ederer and electronicist Daniel Kordik who subsequently returned to their home countries, Austria and Slovakia respectively.

At the start of each Friday workshop, attendees (numbers range from single figures to mid-twenties) sit on chairs in a large circle. Prévost (or a deputy, if he is absent) chooses two adjacent players to begin; with nothing pre-planned, they play freely reacting to one another until the player immediately to their right joins them in a trio. At some point the player on the left of the trio drops out, leaving a duo and so on. Players remain in their seats, the group playing moves anti-clockwise until it has completed the circle. The album title, Widdershins, means anti-clockwise. The album's two longest tracks "Widdershins One" and "Widdershins Two" capture examples of the process at the concert. The free-flowing playing and the smooth moves from duo to trio to duo et cetera are a credit to the workshop's tolerant atmosphere and methodology; anyone who turns up is welcome and no-one is ever turned away.

Once the circle of duos and trios is complete, Prévost or his deputy will select players to freely play together in groupings of various sizes. The album's remaining tracks reflect this facet of the workshop, with two trios, three quartets and one sextet. As before, the musicians in such groupings had no forewarning or preparation for them and improvise freely in reaction to what their bandmates play, with the end results sometimes seeming telepathic. Anyone who has ever doubted the validity of free improv is recommended to listen to Widdershins to hear what is possible. Everything on this album is a credit to Eddie Prévost's vision and courage when he started the workshop in 1999...







Comments and Feedback:



More Recent Reviews, Articles, and Interviews @ The Squid's Ear...


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

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Jason Hwang Kao:
Myths of Origin
(True Sound Recordings)



Donny McCaslin:
Lullaby For The Lost
(Editions)



Ingebrigt Haker Flaten (
Exit) Knarr:
Drops
(Sonic Transmissions Records)



Ingebrigt Haker Flaten (
Exit) Knarr:
Drops
[VINYL]
(Sonic Transmissions Records)



Eva Novoa Trio (
w/ Daniel Carter/
Francisco Mela):
The Freedom Suite,
Vol. 2
(577 Records)



Fieldwork (
Iyer/
Lehman/
Sorey):
Thereupon
(Pi Recordings)



Dan Weiss (
w/ Evans/
Okazaki/
Brennan):
Unclassified Affections
(Pi Recordings)



Adam O'Farrill:
For These Streets
[VINYL 2 LPs]
(Out Of Your Head Records)



John Zorn (
JACK Quartet w/Yura Lee/
Michael Nicolas):
Prolegomena
(Tzadik)



Beth Schenck Quintet (
w/ Mezzacappa/
Wright/
Glenn/
Wrobel):
Dahlia
(Queen Bee Records)



Webber/Morris Big Band:
Unseparate
(Out Of Your Head Records)



Tomas Fujiwara:
Dream Up
(Out Of Your Head Records)



Ned Rothenberg:
Looms & Legends
(Pyroclastic Records)



Earscratcher (
Harnik/
Rempis/
Lonberg-Holm/
Daisy):
Otoliths
(Aerophonic)



Eric Normand:
Dur Temps Pour les Rouges
[CASSETTE w/ DOWNLOAD]
(Peanote Records)



Larry Stabbins/
Keith Tippett/
Louis Moholo-Moholo:
Live In Foggia
(Ogun)



Paul Dunmall:
Away With Troubles And Anxieties!
(Discus)



Shifa (
Musson/
Thomas/
Sanders):
Ecliptic
(Discus)



Natsuki Tamura/
Satoko Fujii:
Ki
(Libra)



Borah Bergman/
Anthony Braxton/
Peter Brotzmann:
Eight By Three
(Mixtery)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




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


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (62571)