Recording in Graz, Austria in 2019 at the club Tube's, Chicago alto saxophonist Dave Rempis and drummer Michael Zerang, frequent collaborators with Ken Vandermark and The Resonance Ensemble, joined with Austrian improvising and classical pianist Elisabeth Harnik to record three exuberant and incredibly informed improvisations: "Triple Tube" I through III.
Label: Not Two Catalog ID: MW998-2 Squidco Product Code: 29295
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2020 Country: Poland Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold Recorded live at Tube's, in Graz, Austria on March 24th, 2019, by Iztok Zupan.
"[...] Firmly rooted in Free Jazz and Free Music with a touch of ethnic sounds are the Chicagoans on Triple Tube, saxophonist Dave Rempis, who worked with Ken Vandermark and leads a variety of his own units, and percussionist Michael Zerang, whose associates stretch from Joe McPhee to Hamid Drake. Third partner in the ensemble is Graz pianist Elisabeth Harnik, who has extensive notated music experience as well as improv partnerships with the likes of Joëlle Léandre.
[...]
the three live Tube variations are also open enough to emphasize personal creativity as much as group narratives. From the top Zerang's power thumps and Rempis' tenor saxophone miultiphonics are challenged by a waterfall of cascading keyboard inferences from Harnik, which spill out horizontally while working themselves into any pauses or cracks left open by the others' pauses. As the pianist's dynamics reach near-Cecil Taylor-like flexibility, the drummer responds with redoubled dark rumbles and the saxophonist with spurting glissandi. Before the three slide down to a slacker pace their collective freneticism has reach such a level of flamenco-like brawn that Andalusian echoes are insinuated. While an interregnum of swirling string driven stop time challenge enlivens "Triple Tube II", the sequende3 is stretched still further. Reshaping it involves a mixture of muted cymbal tolling and crackles from Zerang: honks and peeps from Rempis: and Harnik ruffling pedal pushed textures so that they echo throughout the piano's soundboard.
High-pitched reed sucking and guitar-like plucks from Harnik presage a more moderated and relaxed finale to "Triple Tube III". But with musician cross talk identifying that the audience yearns for more, the trio resumes the program with louder reed distortions, clattering drum clips and most importantly keyboard scrubbing theme extensions from the pianist. Finally Rempis' spindly split tones, Zernag's echoing pops and a galloping, repetitive rondo from Harnik layer the collective output to a laugher-filled ending.