MARTIN ARCHER & JOHN JASNOCH - Provenance
Discus: DISCUS122CD
Martin Archer: sopranino, saxello, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, flute, bass harmonica; John Jasnoch: electric guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar, lap steel guitar, mandolin, banjo, oud
Recorded 22nd July 2021 by Martin Archer at Discus Music Studio.
It is always exciting to hear improvised music capture in all its raw creativity. Sometimes the situation might be sufficiently tense that the musicians draw in on themselves and it takes a while before the pieces grow. At other times, like this set, the musicians are brimming with ideas and a shared knowledge and understanding of each other (after a shared history of 40 years on and off playing, you’d expect this – Jasnoch and Archer were in jazz-punk outfit Bass Tone Trap in the 1980s, and, over the years, in ASK). Archer, in the liner notes, observes that few of his recordings over the past three decades have been free improvisation. This is probably jazz’s loss, given how easily he slips into the challenge of this way of playing. I often think that the real test of free music is not whether the musicians are able to surprise the listener, but how well they can surprise themselves. To do this takes a particular intelligence to creating sounds and disrupting linear thought patterns and musical grooves than habit can force you into. Apart from ‘Provenance’, track 5, the tunes have double titles, with the words separated by /. For example, ‘Mynediad / The Rudston monolith’, the opening track pairs the Welsh word for ‘access’ with the name of a large, neolithic standing stone in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Not sure what we are to make of this (other titles seem to have a more interpretable solution, e.g., ‘World heartbreak / nuh’ (track 2) or ‘I know the question / Groundhog’s answer’, track 6 – the latter is particularly apt as I am writing this review on Groundhog Day). If the tunes titles carry a private language and shared humour, the music itself is surprisingly inviting and inclusive; the playing draws the listener into the structure and development of each piece, with sections of slow, meditative, almost Minimalist in its repetition and drone-like development, interspersed with fiercer playing which can burst into snatches of melody or jaunty rhythm which are as rewarding as they are surprising for the listener. The recording was made in a single day and shows that the duo have lost none of their familiarity and spark, bouncing off each other and producing a superlative session of improvised music.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Discus: DISCUS122CD
Martin Archer: sopranino, saxello, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, flute, bass harmonica; John Jasnoch: electric guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar, lap steel guitar, mandolin, banjo, oud
Recorded 22nd July 2021 by Martin Archer at Discus Music Studio.
It is always exciting to hear improvised music capture in all its raw creativity. Sometimes the situation might be sufficiently tense that the musicians draw in on themselves and it takes a while before the pieces grow. At other times, like this set, the musicians are brimming with ideas and a shared knowledge and understanding of each other (after a shared history of 40 years on and off playing, you’d expect this – Jasnoch and Archer were in jazz-punk outfit Bass Tone Trap in the 1980s, and, over the years, in ASK). Archer, in the liner notes, observes that few of his recordings over the past three decades have been free improvisation. This is probably jazz’s loss, given how easily he slips into the challenge of this way of playing. I often think that the real test of free music is not whether the musicians are able to surprise the listener, but how well they can surprise themselves. To do this takes a particular intelligence to creating sounds and disrupting linear thought patterns and musical grooves than habit can force you into. Apart from ‘Provenance’, track 5, the tunes have double titles, with the words separated by /. For example, ‘Mynediad / The Rudston monolith’, the opening track pairs the Welsh word for ‘access’ with the name of a large, neolithic standing stone in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Not sure what we are to make of this (other titles seem to have a more interpretable solution, e.g., ‘World heartbreak / nuh’ (track 2) or ‘I know the question / Groundhog’s answer’, track 6 – the latter is particularly apt as I am writing this review on Groundhog Day). If the tunes titles carry a private language and shared humour, the music itself is surprisingly inviting and inclusive; the playing draws the listener into the structure and development of each piece, with sections of slow, meditative, almost Minimalist in its repetition and drone-like development, interspersed with fiercer playing which can burst into snatches of melody or jaunty rhythm which are as rewarding as they are surprising for the listener. The recording was made in a single day and shows that the duo have lost none of their familiarity and spark, bouncing off each other and producing a superlative session of improvised music.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
