ADAMS, DUNN & HAAS - Future Moons
Ansible Editions CD 002
Kieran Adams: sampler, drum machine and drums; Matthew Dunn: keyboards and electronics; Andy Haas: saxophone, fife, hojok (a Korean double-reed wind instrument in the shawm or oboe family) and live electronics
Recorded at Sonology
Before looking at Future Moons, we ought briefly to visit the group known as The Cosmic Range, as I think it was the breeding ground, or at least the nursery, for the Adams, Dunn & Haas trio and its music. The Cosmic Range was an Avant-improv band led by Dunn and included Haas on saxophone and Adams on drums and electronics. The essential difference between the two bands is in the space between their rhythmic structures: fixed beats from ‘Range’ and swerving pulsations from this trio, often accompanying passages of wild abstraction.
The roots of The Cosmic Range lie, undoubtedly, in Miles Davis’s electric era, roughly 1968 – 1998, and an almanac of jazz music from artists such as Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers and James Blood Ulmer. The individual musicians in the trio bring a wide range of experiences with them. Matthew Dunn has made several folk records and contributed to the Sub Pop Singles Club; Kieran Adams was a member of The Guardian’s ‘New Band of the Day’ Diana (09/07/2012); Andy Haas played with Martha and the Muffins for some seven years, as well as collaborating with many of the ‘stars’ in the musical firmament of New York City, including saxophonist John Zorn. Haas’s tone on the soprano saxophone is reminiscent of the shawm, a piercing, trumpet-like sound which almost identifies him. The wellspring from which this music arises clearly lends its profoundly textural character, generated by its multi-layered and fibrous structure, to the formation of its throbbing tempo.
The soprano sax is the essence of the principal fundamentals which power the album’s fervid passion. The ‘free fusion’ aspect of ‘The Range’ is here again, shrieking for appreciation on the pulsating title-track while Temple of Time comes as close as it can to a brush with Free Jazz in its twitchily agitated drumming.
Future Moons is one of three collections of improvised, sonic experimentations released by the new Ansible Editions record label. The music is penetrating and as much credit for this should go to the recording engineers as to the musicians themselves. The entire soundscape is crystal clear and the balance is textbook; at all times right and left channels are talking to each other, the conversation being a continuous discourse. The whole performance is forever in motion, its essence offering a world of disquisition.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Ansible Editions CD 002
Kieran Adams: sampler, drum machine and drums; Matthew Dunn: keyboards and electronics; Andy Haas: saxophone, fife, hojok (a Korean double-reed wind instrument in the shawm or oboe family) and live electronics
Recorded at Sonology
Before looking at Future Moons, we ought briefly to visit the group known as The Cosmic Range, as I think it was the breeding ground, or at least the nursery, for the Adams, Dunn & Haas trio and its music. The Cosmic Range was an Avant-improv band led by Dunn and included Haas on saxophone and Adams on drums and electronics. The essential difference between the two bands is in the space between their rhythmic structures: fixed beats from ‘Range’ and swerving pulsations from this trio, often accompanying passages of wild abstraction.
The roots of The Cosmic Range lie, undoubtedly, in Miles Davis’s electric era, roughly 1968 – 1998, and an almanac of jazz music from artists such as Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers and James Blood Ulmer. The individual musicians in the trio bring a wide range of experiences with them. Matthew Dunn has made several folk records and contributed to the Sub Pop Singles Club; Kieran Adams was a member of The Guardian’s ‘New Band of the Day’ Diana (09/07/2012); Andy Haas played with Martha and the Muffins for some seven years, as well as collaborating with many of the ‘stars’ in the musical firmament of New York City, including saxophonist John Zorn. Haas’s tone on the soprano saxophone is reminiscent of the shawm, a piercing, trumpet-like sound which almost identifies him. The wellspring from which this music arises clearly lends its profoundly textural character, generated by its multi-layered and fibrous structure, to the formation of its throbbing tempo.
The soprano sax is the essence of the principal fundamentals which power the album’s fervid passion. The ‘free fusion’ aspect of ‘The Range’ is here again, shrieking for appreciation on the pulsating title-track while Temple of Time comes as close as it can to a brush with Free Jazz in its twitchily agitated drumming.
Future Moons is one of three collections of improvised, sonic experimentations released by the new Ansible Editions record label. The music is penetrating and as much credit for this should go to the recording engineers as to the musicians themselves. The entire soundscape is crystal clear and the balance is textbook; at all times right and left channels are talking to each other, the conversation being a continuous discourse. The whole performance is forever in motion, its essence offering a world of disquisition.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
