UK-based Leo Records never veers off its course of releasing experimental and free thinking music. Here are the latest from its den…
Joelle Leandre/b, Benoit Delbecq/p and Francois Houle/cl trio up together for a seven part “14 rue Paul Fort” sequence. The mood and instrumentation sounds like an homage to the 60s team of Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Bley and 
Steve Swallow in that there is lots of spontaneous interplay here. “Fort” one and two include some scratchy cymbal work along with eerie bass bowing and picking as well as eerie clarinet musings, while some heavy tonguing and bass slapping occurs on “Fort 4.” Sounds similar to a zophar occur on the cantoral “Fort 5” while mating calls for a rhino pop up here and there as well before the rumination takes over on the closing “Fort 7.” Not sure about the melody, but the ideas flow abundantly.
Pianist Uwe Oberg goes solo here, using almost every part of the piano for some sense of melody or rhythm. Strings are plucked on the plodding “Chant III” while spooky tension between ivory and string occur on “Touching.” Lots of percussion takes place on “Enzym & Eros” while edgy moods are mixed with bebop as Oberg tackles a pair of Monk tunes. “Brillian Corners/Played Twice” has night shadows growing long and “Pannonica” has a moonless night of mystery. The “forte” is put back into “Pianoforte” here.
The band SWQ is composed of Sandra Weiss/as-bsn, Jonathan Moritz/ss-ts, Kenny Warren/tp, Sean Ali/b and Crlo Costa/dr. There is a three part “Transition Suite” that has the first part sound like a dentist cleaning teeth, whle bruxism occurs on the second part “Scattering.” Chirping animal calls from Tanzania are delivered by the horns on “Dispersion” while high pitched sounds on the 14 minute long “Water In Tubes” gives hints of someone slowly waking up in the morning to face the day. Ali gets the dominant voice on “Ramble On” before Warren gasps the finish line. Very geographic-you had to be there.
Norbert Zajac, Brigitte Kupper, Gala Hummel and Iouri Grankin use their voices to comprise the intriguing VocColours. Here, they team up with bassist and electronician Eberhard Kranemann and put together some creative and thought provoking material. The voices at times are simply free form sounds and pitches that veer around electronic musings as on “Osmosis” while a mix of subliminal conversations akin to walking around at a cocktail party mix with gurgles and sprinkles form “Taiga.” Jazz-themed scatting takes place with electronic percussion on “Bassanoia” while semi-chanting teams up with whispers and electric noodles on “Luxatio.” Thought provoking and an interesting direction to explore. With a bit more cohesion, this could be on the brink of something important.
Leo Records