RETURN OF THE NEW THING – Traque (2003)

Label: Ayler Records – aylCD-010

Format: CD, Album; Country: Sweden - Released: 2003

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

#1 recorded at Studio Val d'Orge, Epinay sur Orge, France on February 16, 2002.

#2-5 recorded at the Festival Jazz à Mulhouse in Mulhouse, France, on August 25, 2000.

Artwork [Cover Art], Design – Åke Bjurhamn

Executive-Producer – Jan Ström

Mastered By – Maïkôl Seminatore

Photography By – Pascale Szpiro

Recorded By – Grégory Teurtrie (tracks: 2 to 5)

Traque is the group Return of the New Thing's second recording, the first being issued several years earlier on the Leo label. Those who appreciate the high quality of these unabashedly uncompromising pieces will be unconcerned that the so-called "New Thing" has been around continuously for decades at the time of these sessions, and instead focus on the music, not the semantics. Dan Warburton, who plays piano and violin for the quartet and also wrote the liner notes (and who is better known for his exemplary work as a journalist), calls the genre of performance "improvised free jazz," but whatever it is called, the results enthrall. Those familiar with the quirky, staccato-infused, iconoclastic blowing of Jean-Luc Guionnet will recognize his primitive sound from the get-go, as his pre-bop snarls and anti-bop phrasing are riddled with a strained emotional fervor. There are times, particularly on the long opening track, when the ghost of Albert Ayler and the shadow of Cecil Taylor raise their heads. That these comparisons can even be made is a tribute to some incredible finger work from Warburton, who is the "real" thing on his primary instrument, the piano. Listeners accustomed to the (mostly) European post-Coltrane embrace of free improvisation should be taken by the harsh divergences that run throughout: the altered tempos on "Traque," the hard-hitting exclamations on "Scent," and the occasional changes in volume that sometimes seem contrived. Warburton is a powerful presence particularly on "Traque," where he is permitted to stretch at length. There appears to be a conscious effort to build slowly (and sometimes not so slowly), but there is an evolutionary consistency throughout. Much time is allotted to solos, and they are uniformly superb, with a special nod to Warburton's CT-like clusters that at their best come across like meteor showers from space, and to Guionnet's weird but enticing disjointedness. Somehow it all works remarkably well, though as is so often the case those not accustomed to "free" improvisation will find this music very abstract and difficult to follow. For everyone else, well, how about a glass of champagne?

_ Review by Steve Loewy

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