By Nick Ostrum
It begins with a whirl of sound, out of which Francois Houle’s clarinet
rises to lead the piece into a lively Arabic dance. The rhythm, played or
implied, remains, but the horns and strings swing back into a stew of
improvisation that recalls, with Middle Eastern inflections, the free jazz
fumblings especially of late 1950s/early 1960s Ornette and Don Cherry. They
lean toward melody but are also pulled to the cacophony that would soon be
realized as free improv in Europe. Here, Armoush balances that impulse with
his folk and classical Arabic training to produce something that is
absolutely stunning, especially when punctuated by his hauntingly emotive
voice.
Distilled Extractions is Armoush’s group Rayhan’s second
recording, at least as far as I can find. Accompanying the core of Kenton
Loewen on drums, Houle on clarinet, JP Carter on trumpet, Jesse Zubot on
violin and, of course, Armoush himself on oud, ney and vocals is cellist
Marina Hasselberg, who has played everything from early music to
contemporary classical to collaborations with Okkyung Lee, Ingrid Laubrock
and John Dieterich. (Notably, this is the same Rayhan line-up that
performed on 2023’s
Electritradition, though there in duos rather than collectively.) The stylistic reach is
wide, though much of that reach, especially into free jazz, is integrated
along different scalar and rhythmic lines. At its core, however, lies dance
music – by definition a communal undertaking – driven by a steady rhythm
and eastern scales and syntax. This alone might be enough to make this
album compelling, especially when performed by band this tight. The
improvisations, however, the protracted pronouncements/recitations, the
genuinely weird atmospherics, the unstructured improv sections truly
distinguish Distilled Extractions from the crowd.
In an odd way, this reminds me of the Grateful Dead at their digressive
best. The group eventually get back to the melody and the “song,” but the
listener is often left wondering how it happened, and excited that things
happened in the way they did. To these ears, at least, this is one of the
best so far of 2025.
Distilled Extractionsis available as a CD and download on
Bandcamp:
.