Tim Berne has put together a working team named after his last album, consisting of Oscar Noriega/cl-bcl, Matt Mitchell/p and Ches Smith/dr-perc/vibes in support of the leader, songwriter and alto sax player. They are recorded in upstate New York, with the exciting interplay and symbiotic conversations feeling a lot like a concert performance. There are six songs on this 1.2 hour album; the first three are under ten minutes and the last three go from around 15 minutes up to the knockout punch. “Son of Not So Sure” and “Psalm” have an eerie and luminescent quietness to them, while the last three songs, “OC/DC”, “Socket” and “Cornered (Duck)” have varying moments of deft interplay between the reeds and Mitchell’s intuitive piano, and violent and chaotic shouting matches with heavy rock and avalanching drumming causing a free for all as if there were a 25 car pileup on the northbound 5 going to Bakersfield. The variety of themes, dynamics and moods shows a great deal of listening between these artists, but, as in a Wagner opera, can the listener endure such genius?
ECM Records
www.ecmrecords.com