Sometimes the music from the UK based Leo Records is in the pocket, sometimes a bit out of the pocket, but this time, where is the pocket?!?
Pianist Simon Nabatov releases 2 wild and wooley albums, and in all honesty they should have been one big combo, as they are bound at the hip. The first one with Phil Minton/voc, Frank Gratkowski/reeds, 
Marcus Schmickler/elec and Gerry Hemingway/dr comes across as a night at the pub that gets out of control. Minton shouts out rantings and poetry to growling reeds and flailing drums on “Crossing The River Zbrucz” with flailing piano and oodles of noodles on “The Church of Novograd.” The clarinet flutters on the acrimonious Gedali” and the drums 
thunder on “Intermezzo.” Mind your pints and quarts!
For the next one, Nabatov teams up with Gratkowski, Hemingway, Schmickler and Jaap Blonk/voc for fourteen abstract pieces that include SOS codes and a speech on “Manifesto,” musical dots and dashes for “Dy Bul Shchyl” vocal gurgles for “Intermission 1” blurbs and bops on “Te Heights” some flute and voice effects on “Spring” and a dash of blues for “Intermission 2.” What stuck to the wall?
Consisting of Jurg Gasser/ts, Peter K Frey/b and Dieter Ulrich/dr, the Gasser 3 is an intuitive unit that produces team-composed originals. Gasser’s tentative tenor puffs over the interplay of “Espresso Glattico” and the sax smokes on the restless “Temptations.” Angry bowed bass on “Ewig Wahrt Am Langsten” and “Joke” produce agitation, while Ulruch and Gasser punch and box like middleweights on “Slow Fox.” A bit of blues on “Ciao” but for the most part the music is fluid and random.
Ensemble 5 is made up of Heinz Geisser/perc, Fridolin Blumer/b, Reto Staub/p and Robert Morgenthaler/tb-did I lose count? Morgenthaler’s ‘bone is murky as it plunges on “Hidden Corners” and puffs on the chirpy “The Collective Mind” while splatting like a squished bug on As In A Dream.” Blumer and Staub and delicate on “Lotus Garden” and prickly for “High Wired” while the team is dark and ominous for the hovering “Spreading The Envelope.” Long shadows on a night with a full moon in the graveyard.
Riding along in The Last Taxi is Chiara Liuzzi/voc-elec, Girgia Santoro/fl-voc, Adolfo La Volpe/g-elec, Giacomo Mongelli/dr, chris Rathbun/b and pat Battstone/p for thirteen atmospheric originals. Some rock beets are punched out on “Attraverso La Citta’” and you get lots of reverb and guitar licks on the askance “Inside the Dark Castle,” Escape Syndrome” and “ Sunrise Over A Painted Desert.” Dreamy flutes and voices make “Looking Glass Woman” and “L’Amore Reve” highlights while soft voices team with electronics for an ambient “Twilight Departure.” Paintings on the wall.