Quite moving in places - there's a real heightened sense of passion you get here on alto saxophonist composer Logan Richardson's latest especially in the early part of the album on 'City of Glass'. A powerful and quite intense recording released at the end of April the American Richardson now based in Los Angeles was based in Rome in 2021 when he decided to record an album with analogue synths and key bass. And here he is with US drummer Tommy Crane and Ukrainian guitarist/bassist Igor Osypov who was on Afrofuturism. It's a warts and all sound, there's nothing clinical or hush laden here and it sits well with Crane's own album We're All Improvisers Now on which Richardson also guests. Crane's sprawling maximalism makes sense in terms of the album's quasi-operatic expansiveness Richardson an oratorial magnet all the way through. And if anything it proves a certain match as much with an alt.electronica type of listener as a jazz one. Quite an experimental record - cover art includes an image of Logan as a baby in the early-1980s in his mother's arms - often with a punkish edge you feel Richardson is in a period of flux and this represents a staging post towards his next even more considered breakthrough. An album that has a similar stark and brooding mood sustained pretty much throughout only 'Pearl Gate' is a little lighter and you get a big slab of sound from the three players that certainly gives impact and makes a statement. It's a bit samey but Richardson continues to prove he is a vital presence as an individualist seeking to make a difference and the ecstasy and unburdening is all part of that kaleidoscopic metamorphosis you feel he has in mind as a dweller on the threshold.
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