Daily jazz blog, Marlbank

Eddie Prévost, NO Moore, James O’Sullivan, Ross Lambert, Chord, Shrike Records ***1/2

More in our recent thread of avant-garde reviews. Not unpleasant, what some might term - not necessarily uncharitably - ''squeaky gate'' music, percussionist Eddie Prévost and guitarists NO Moore, James O’Sullivan and Ross Lambert have concocted …

Published: 2 Aug 2023. Updated: 11 months.

More in our recent thread of avant-garde reviews.

Not unpleasant, what some might term - not necessarily uncharitably - ''squeaky gate'' music, percussionist Eddie Prévost and guitarists NO Moore, James O’Sullivan and Ross Lambert have concocted something of a healing spa of a record even entering the ambient domain by the side entrance.

'Inspire Expire' has an hypnotic glaze to it. And certainly the tracks thrive on long-form, occasionally brooding and ominous sounding, legato explorations where guitar lines can career across a clear blue sky as percussion clatters and rumbles as on 'Texture's Edge'.

Recorded at a studio in south London's Crystal Palace suburb last summer if you are into the soundworld of the late John Russell or imagine an apt accompaniment to a reading of some of the dystopian work of JG Ballard there is much to glean here. And on tracks like 'Seconds' the players enter an eerie, underpopulated world where less is appreciably more and a Ballard creation would feel completely at home walking the same ever darkening planet.

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Steve Tromans and Mark Sanders, Mountains, Meditations, Murmurations, Discus Music ***1/2

UK improvisers pianist Steve Tromans and drummer Mark Sanders recording here together as a duo for the first time - the recording was made in Birmingham's Sansom Studios last year. Often serene and certainly thoughtful avantist Tromans can be …

Published: 2 Aug 2023. Updated: 11 months.

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UK improvisers pianist Steve Tromans and drummer Mark Sanders recording here together as a duo for the first time - the recording was made in Birmingham's Sansom Studios last year. Often serene and certainly thoughtful avantist Tromans can be rhapsodic while Sanders is a careful listening presence in response, his approach sometimes sparking thoughts of Sunny Murray in terms of sheer expansiveness and coiled power. Often hush laden and introspective the major extended piece is 'Golden Mountain,' much longer than the rest but it's an album where little moments count and hook you in. Certainly the pair follow a mindful approach that often reaches a sort of logical conclusion. And it's a soothing recording although sometimes you think Mountains, Meditations, Murmurations is only the start of a journey that might be developed productively on a further recording. Pick of the pieces is the shattering excursions Tromans builds on 'Third Murmuration' that contrast with the aching tenderness he finds at the beginning of the second of the three murmuration pieces. Sanders' cymbal dints and dings on 'Silver Mountain' are a good place to zone in to explore how his often minimalist touches do so much to add a more panoramic sense to the whole feel of what is absolutely a meeting-of-minds. Practically tailor made for all the Freeness listeners among marlbank readers.