Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg on Quartetics by Reuben / Hanslip / Lash / Hession
The historic improvised music label Bead Records, founded by a collective around violinist Philipp Wachsmann (with Tony Wren, Peter Cusack, later Matt Hutchinson, etc.), has recently been revitalized and is offering new ideas under the direction of percussionist Emil Karlsen, featuring a diverse lineup of interesting musicians.
What can be said about this new Quartetics, composed of Federico Reuben (laptop improvisation / live coding), tenor saxophonist Mark Hanslip, double bassist Dominic Lash, and drummer Paul Hession? One might assume their music follows in the tradition of free jazz that we still hear everywhere at festivals and clubs—the eternal trio of saxophone, double bass, and drums plus electric guitar, keyboard, or electronics—that familiar idiom of avant-garde free jazz which can sometimes feel like a cliché.
I discover, however, that Mark Hanslip has seriously evolved since his collaborations with Javier Carmona, Tony Bianco, Ollie Brice, the Crux Trio, or Michael Garrick. His playing, artfully segmented with wide intervals, is quite distinctive. Faced with the crackling, irregular drumming of Paul Hession—a longtime collaborator of the late Simon Fell and explosive saxophonist Allan Wilkinson in a devilishly intense hard-free trio—Hanslip’s sophisticated playing and subtle harmonic inversions create an unstable balance and a striking contrast that highlights both musicians.
Add to this volatile equation the multifaceted sonic work of Dominic Lash on the bow, and we end up with a deepening of perspectives and breakthroughs in the fragmented universe of free music — music with no plan A or plan B.
Federico Reuben’s electronic contribution is entirely relevant, maintaining exchanges with the more radical free millimeter strikes of Hession, whose finesse and precision we discover in empathy with the dynamics and chaos of Reuben’s laptop improvisations with a multitude of sonic antics appearing out of nowhere. His output is particularly interesting and multifaceted.
A big plus for Hession: exciting free drummers are becoming increasingly rare among the younger generation. Over this, Hanslip’s breath traces its sinuous path across a polyrhythmic canvas supported by the impulses of the other three.
Their music, composed of voices that one would consider disparate or even antagonistic from a formal point of view, proves to be surprisingly coherent, dynamic, and deeply intelligible. The listener has the pleasure of clearly hearing all the individual contributions and interactions in the overall sound of this Quartetics across five collective improvisations spanning 33 minutes.
And yes, the quality of the recording and the craftsmanship of the instrumentalists! Each musician has leisure to cultivate their own quirks for the benefit of the whole.
I find this album truly remarkable. Congratulations.
Eyal Hareuveni (Salt Peanuts) on Quartetics by Reuben / Hanslip / Lash / Hession
Quartetics documents a British free improvising quartet in its first-ever performance in May 2019 in York, featuring sound artist and live-electronics player Federico Reuben (who lectures at the University of York), tenor sax player Mark Hanslip, double bass player Dominic Lash, and drummer Paul Hession. These seasoned improvisers share extensive collaborative histories: Lash has longstanding collaborations with Reuben and Hanslip, while Hession, Reuben, and Hanslip had already performed and recorded as a trio.
The new configuration, with Reuben’s radical approach to laptop improvisation and live coding using manipulated samples, glitches, synths, distorted guitar and piano sounds, and live processing, explores the idea of quartet as a new field of challenging sonic possibilities through five intense and exploratory free improvisations that generate a body of knowledge and sensation through «a state of being about to happen».
This quartet acts like an elaborate sonic lab that demands deep listening, super-fast instincts, and dynamic interplay. As expected, Reuben acts as the unpredictable wildcard. Lash, Hanslip, and Hession attempt to accommodate his rich, surprising, and experimental sonic palette into a collective aesthetic and intricate, detailed, layered textures, while capturing an urgent sense of imminent discovery, maintaining a balanced interplay, and leaving enough space for strong-minded individual voices. Unfortunately, the 33-minute Quartetics is the only recorded document of this fine, intrepid quartet.
Jeph Jerman (Squidsear) on Aspects of Memory by Lawrence Casserley and Emil Karlsen
Since 1974, Bead records has been collecting and disseminating fine examples of improvised music, and here we have another beautiful turn. Emil Karlsen plays drums while Lawrence Casserley applies his signal processing instrument, and a bit of black magic ensues. A live duet with altered echoes and quick thinking galore, you'd be forgiven if you happened to forget that there's only one physical player and not an army of charging gremlins.
It's fascinating to witness Karlsen's playing, and Casserley's playing of Karlsen's playing — repeating, stretching, smashing and filtering percussive elements to add an otherworldliness in real time. Imagine a legion of drummers in a mirrored funhouse, curled and warped in ever new ways as you shift your position. There's an enormous amount here that sounds like sonic weather fronts rising and falling in slow weighted routes, while smallish detritus gets picked up and blown about.
This recording reminds me very much of Bob Ostertag's "Getting A Head", wherein he processes the percussion of Charles K. Noyes using an altogether more arcane system. Both recordings play with time and memory, and do so in inventive and careful ways. This is such fertile ground that I'm surprised that there are so few practitioners of it.
Tom Haugen (Take Effect) on Shadow Figures by Spaces Unfolding + Pierre Alexandre Tremblay
The trio of Spaces Unfolding (Neil Metcalfe, Philipp Wachsmann and Emil Karlsen) are aligned with Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, who provides electronics for these very distinct and exciting improvised selections.
“Shadow Figures Pt. 1,2” opens with Wachsmann’s strategic violin plucking amid Metcalfe’s dreamy flute for the 20+ minutes of curious and oddly rhythmic gestures that dance around chamber-esque ideas, and “In Praise Of Shadows Pt. 1” follows with ambient noise and electronic manipulation via Tremblay via a very atypical landscape.
In the middle, “Echoes Of Being Pt. 1, 2” buzzes with intrigue alongside Karlsen’s unpredictable and animated drumming in a sci-fi, cinematic sort of way that has much underlying melody, while “In Praise Of Shadows Pt. 2” showcases the flowing flute amid glitchy exploration.
Arriving close to the end, “Reflect/Reflex Pt. 1,2” tinkers with all sorts of atmospheric bouts and wind, drums and string playfulness, and “In Praise Of Shadows Pt. 3” exits with a hint of mystery, where the soft droning builds into a noisy, abrasive yet calculate finish of dizzying song craft.
A truly unique effort that’s armed with unparalleled attention to pitch, tension and avant-garde qualities, in the area of improvisation, this is a stand out record.