By Nick Ostrum
See You in the Pastis a meeting of generations. On the one side are
Kyle Hutchins on saxophones, Seth Andrew Davis on guitar and electronics,
and Kevin Cheli on percussion and vibraphone, all three young(er) and
associated with various Midwestern scenes. On the other side is Douglas R.
Ewart, here on saxophones, flutes, and
George Floyd Bunt Staff
. Ewart, of course, was an early AACM member and has since become
multi-reedist+ legend even after departing Chicago for Minneapolis. This
grouping succeeds not only in blending scenes and rough cohorts, but in
layering the old (or ancestral or atavistic) and the new (or electronic
futurism) convincingly. One need not take such a polarity too literally, of
course. Electronics is hardly new to Ewart’s circles. However, here it
sounds not like Sun Ra’s Moog or even George Lewis’ experiments, but like a
more contemporary – astral prog crossed with ambient and particularist noise
making – iteration.
Together, Ewart, Hutchins, Davis, and Cheli harness a large sound, which,
even in the quiet moments, occupies considerable space. Ewart’s spirituality
and earthiness is a clear thread, but it sounds different in the context of
the electronics and long stretches of wall-of-sound production. Most often,
Ewart or Hutchins fight through the downpour that Davis and Cheli (and I
think Hutchins and Ewart, when on his George Floyd Bunt Staff) conjure.
Actually, it is tough to decipher when Ewart or Hutchins steps up and the
others scape and scrape the sound from behind. Many passages veer even
further from the free jazz stylings one might expect into noise rock and the
most abstract moments of the Grateful Dead’s Space/Drums jams. Indeed,
See You in the Past
is more interested in suspended and extended moments, rather than
progressive development. There are exceptions. Future Ghosts, at 7:43 the
shortest of the three tracks, is a scorcher. It is a free for all from the
beginning and the energy does not ebb until the final moments. Still, the
other selections, Echoes of Tomorrow and Sound Seekers, subdue the quartet’s
most eruptive impulses. It is in these longer stretches that this group
shows what they can really achieve, as they not only find their sound, but
probe it, stretch it, and turn it inside out to utterly mesmerizing effect.
See You in the Past is available on Bandcamp as a CD and download:
.