Label:
Random Radar Records – RRR 005
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1979
Style:
Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Side
A was recorded (11. 5. 78) at Digswell House in Welwyn Garden City, Herts.
Side
B was recorded (26. 5. 78) at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art.
Artwork
– Lol Coxhill
Artwork
[Back Cover Graphics] – Mary Staples
Producer
– Lol Coxhill
Matrix
/ Runout (Runout A, etched): RRR 005 A Pete Helffrich ALT 4-2-80
Matrix
/ Runout (Runout B, etched): RRR 005 B Pete Helffrich ALT 4-2-80
side
1:
A
- 11/5/78 (Coxhill–Emmerson) ........................................................................... 19:24
side
2:
B
- 26/5/78
(Coxhill–Weston) ................................................................................
20:00
Personnel:
Lol
Coxhill – soprano saxophone
Simon
Emmerson – electronics [the digswell tapes system]
Veryan
Weston – piano
Saxophonist
Coxhill is an extremely versatile player who has played in settings ranging
from punk rock to abstract free improvisation. His sense of melody and time are
particularly distinctive, drawing more heavily from the jazz tradition than
many of his fellow British free improvisers. This recording marks an unusual
pairing of duet partners: Simon Emmerson, an electronic artist whose palette
largely consists of Coxhill's playing thrown back at him in real-time; and
Veryan Weston, a light-fingered pianist whose attention to melody and pulse
closely reflect Coxhill's own.
These
are live analog recordings from 1978, and the sound quality lags far behind
what you'd find in today's recording studio. The shortcomings are definitely
audible but do not substantially interfere with the music.
On
the first side of this LP's Coxhill masterful works patiently, pursuing held
tones and well-articulated intervals which provide his partner fuel for the
fire. The rich reverb drenching the whole interaction competes with delay for
the listener's attention, but the most exciting moments are when Emmerson
distorts the saxophonist's tone into sharp metallic shards or multichromatic
hunks of sound. You can hear Coxhill striding forward on the left channel,
while Emmerson gradually builds up tension on the right and eventually chases
him around the field. It's early stuff, so we're talking basic tools here...
none of the computerized gadgetry that dominates interactive improvisation
today. But it's done in real time, and the spirit of improvisation pervades
both artists' work.
The
second half of the LP's consists of mostly short embroidered pieces featuring
Coxhill and pianist Veryan Weston. The call-and-response motif pops its head up
here and there, as the two players feel each other out in the moment in order
to determine where they're headed. For the most part, they pursue sparse,
melodic improvisation. The melody may fragment or implode, but most of the time
one or the other of these two players is holding up a flag in the wind. Coxhill
mostly sticks to clean tones, though he demonstrates a mastery of swooshing
legato runs that blur the distinctions between their endpoints. (And he's not
at all opposed to sighing, whistling, or crying in the night.) Weston is a
fantastic repairer, because he understands the importance of space. While he's
not averse to simple lines, he often works in clusters of clusters: simple
repeated or modulated pinches of the keys. At times he borrows from atonality,
but when you listen closely you can usually find that local tonal centers agree
heartily with the saxophonist. And Weston's pulse has an undeniable logic,
though it might not hit the ground every two beats.
(Review By Staff / AAJ)
If you find it, buy this album!
(Review By Staff / AAJ)
If you find it, buy this album!
