Circulasione Totale Orchestra: Bandwidth

Starting as a vehicle for saxophonist Frode Gjerstad's experimentation with improvisation within the roadmap of composed sketches, CTO's Norwegian line-up quickly grew to include international collaborators that the intrepid Gjerstad has met over the years. Surely Scandinavia's answer to Chicago's Ken Vandermark in his breadth and prolificacy, the two reedmen have, indeed, intersected, and both regularly enlist drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, another Norwegian heard here alongside South African expat drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo on Bandwidth's first two discs. The international contingent expands with American representation from drummer Hamid Drake on one disc, and cornetist Bobby Bradford on all three. All told, CTO runs a full 12 members, but with a touch of the revolving door policy that's been a fundamental philosophy to CTO since its inception.

CTO's music may be jagged and—on the surface, at least—unrelenting in its intensity, but a variety of trace elements run through it, providing more than just voluminous weight. Bradford waxes blues-like on "Yellow, Bass & Silver Cornet II, Part 4," for example, amidst burbling electronics and fellow American Kevin Norton's vibraphone—an instrument which, with its more delicate, ethereal timbre, might seem out of place here, but which provides yet another differentiating context-setter when it emerges in the mix. Elsewhere, at the start of "Part 3," Norton's pulse provides a starting point for the drummers to create, if only briefly, a definable rhythm. It's also a lull point for the group, where there may still be plenty going on, but with lowered dynamics and actual space to be found, as Bradford once again takes the lead with Gjerstad and fellow reedman Sabir Mateen wailing far in the background. The piece assumes a more electronic direction, with third drummer Morten Johan Olsen working in tandem with electronics wizard Lasse Marhaug and electric guitarist Anders Hana, to create jagged landscapes, bolstered by British bassist Nick Stephens' sawing arco.

With a group of three drummers, two reedmen, one cornetist, a tubaist, two bassists, vibraphone, electric guitar, and assorted electronics, the sonic, polyrhythmic, and melodic possibilities are endless. All this and more is what makes Bandwidth a captivating—albeit challenging—listen that demands as much of its audience as it does the members of Circulasione Totale Orchestra.

Comments