Lunge: Strong Language (2003)

Glenn Astarita

Senior Contributor since 1997

Longtime contributor to AAJ and Downbeat, Jazz Review, EjazzNews, Radio DirectX.

Recent articles (1,629 total)

Published: March 23, 2003

This British improv troupe has been together for five years, as the synergy shows on this effort, which features works recorded live in concert and in the studio. Not your average instrumentation mix for sure, as the quartet incorporates dabs of electronic effects with an organic sound.

On the opener “Planarchy,” Gail Brand’s muted trombone attack rides atop percussionist Mark Sanders' tumbling tom rolls amid spurts of quaintly rendered EFX by Phil Durrant and Pat Thomas. Besides a few nicely designed rest stops, the band’s fascinating implementations of counterbalancing motifs is abetted by a sense of controlled turbulence. Durrant uses his violin as a method for spewing micro-themes amid Thomas’s delicately fabricated passages. Nonetheless, the artists tend to throw the listener for a loop via their uncanny penchants for eliciting unnatural sounds out of their instruments. On “White Writeable Area,” Sanders executes an avant-garde type tribal rhythm in support of Brand’s employment of multiphonics and the group’s somewhat eerie articulations. It all makes for a rather eclectic musical landscape. Recommended. (New Music/ Improvisation)

Visit EMANEM .

Track Listing: 1.Planarchy 2.Rough With The Smooth 3.White Writeable Area 4.No Filters 5.Mull It Over 6.Rothko

Personnel: Gail Brand: trombone

Record Label: Emanem
Style: Modern Jazz