By Richard Blute
“Are you the one who sings those melodies I sometimes hear in spring,
the ones that make me dream?”
With a fragile, heavenly tone, a voice I will never forget, he calmly
replied:
“I don’t know. Sometimes I have hallucinations where I sing winged
melodies I don’t recognise, not knowing if they come from me or ever
existed. I only remember the day I parted from those who taught me to
fly. They told me I carried within me the most perfect song, and that
one day it would let itself be sung freely by me.”
-Luis Lopes, from the liner notes
I sat down to listen to this album with no expectations beyond the fact that
every NoBusiness album I have ever listened to has been of the highest
quality. I didn’t know any of the musicians, but I was attracted to the
album because of the bass clarinet played by Ziv Taubenfeld. I have been
hooked on the peculiar, deep sound of the bass clarinet since the first time
I heard Eric Dolphy playing it. I hit PLAY and almost immediately had one of
those flashes where you realize you’re listening to something genuinely new
and unique and wonderful. I think everyone who listens to free jazz is
looking for such moments.
The album begins with the track ‘Oluyemi’ where cellist Helena
Espvall plucks a simple repetitive pattern over which Taubenfeld improvises.
I think of the title track of Julius Hemphill’s Dogon A.D., where
Abdul Wadud’s cello plays a similar role. But this band has something
different in mind. Espvall is restless in her playing and she varies further
and further from her starting point. I realize she’s also steadily
increasing the speed and intensity of her plucking. Taubenfeld matches her
and João Sousa follows suit on drums. The song briefly feels like a contest.
The track reaches an intense crescendo and then I realize that Espvall has
begun bowing as Taubenfeld falls away and Sousa just plays a light, simple
accompaniment. Her bowing is plaintive, as if she’s missing her accompanists
or sad over the state of the world.
On ‘In the Ether, In a Light’, Sousa’s drumming propels the track
forward. He’s especially good on this track. Espvall switches between bowing
and plucking and always seems to be giving the right reply to what
Taubenfeld is playing, as if they’re having the most intense conversation. I
can’t get over how good Espvall is on this whole album.
‘Come Back Evaporated Chess’ is another standout. Sousa plays some
fairly straight-ahead up-tempo percussion with Espvall bowing rhythmically
but introducing slight variations in response to Sousa. Taubenfeld peeks in
and then lurches in with some Dolphyesque lines. He’s excellent on this
track and the next ‘They Are Fragments of the Sun’. Over the course of
the album, he demonstrates the full range of sound of the instrument.
‘Of the Angel In You, Oh Tigers and Lions’ starts off as a lovely,
peaceful ballad, with Espvall’s cello sounding mournful and Sousa gently
responding, with Taubenfeld’s bass clarinet floating above them both. The
intensity of the piece increases as each musician digs into what the others
are playing. It’s another tremendous track.
I could go on, but instead I’ll say a bit about the musicians. I discovered
that I did in fact know Ziv Taubenfeld as he plays on a very good album I
own, Albert Beger’s Cosmic Waves. Currently based in Lisbon, he has a great
many projects on the go. He’s in a band called Kuhn Fu, dedicated to the
work of Christian Kuhn (bonus points for the name). He leads a large band
called Full Sun which is a collection of great musicians, including Michael
Moore, Luis Vicente, Olie Bryce and Marta Warelis. He’s collaborated with
Han Bennink, Ab Baars, Hamid Drake, Ada Rave, and many more.
Helena Espvall has been involved in a wide number of projects. Her bandcamp
page has many solo pieces I’m slowly wading through and very much enjoying.
She has produced a duo album with Masaki Batoh of the Japanese experimental
rock group, Ghost. She has also been involved in, to quote Wikipedia,
“Philadelphia’s flourishing psychedelic and weird-folk circles”.
João Sousa is part of the exciting Portuguese free improvisation scene.
Especially check out his duo with saxophonist José Lencastre,
Free Speech
and several albums with Pedro Branco.
This is an album to treasure, and another great release from NoBusiness.