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Evan Parker / Mark Nauseef / Toma Gouband: As The Wind
by John Eyles
Evan Parker's Psi label was once a flourishing concern, releasing up to ten albums a year in its peak years between 2004 and 2011, but activity has tailed off recently. After releasing five albums in 2012, neither 2013 nor 2014 brought anything, leading to fears that no more would be heard from Psi. Thankfully, since then it has revived, with 2015 and 2016 producing one album each, the welcome reissue of Parker's 1978 solo classic Monoceros followed by this new ...
read moreEvan Parker Electroacoustic Ensemble: Hasselt
by John Eyles
Evan Parker Electroacoustic EnsembleHasseltPsi2012Although Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble had recorded five albums for ECM since 1997, in 2009 saxophonist Parker's Psi label released SET under his own name; the album was effectively by the Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, sharing its personnel, instrumentation and working methods. At the time, it seemed as if it might have been released under Parker's name for contractual reasons. Now, with the release of Hasselt, the plot thickens; it is ...
read moreGerd Dudek: Day and Night
by John Eyles
When saxophonist Evan Parker started his Psi label back in late 2001, the label's second release--following his own solo album, Lines Burnt in Light (2001)--was the excellent 'Smatter (2002), by Gerd Dudek, the German saxophonist's first release under his own name. In January 2012, when Parker curated a week-long series of concerts at The Vortex in London, entitled “Might I Suggest," Dudek was one of several excellent German musicians invited to participate (along with the estimable Rudi Mahall, Axel Dörner ...
read moreToma Gouband: Courant des Vents
by John Eyles
A lithophone is a musical instrument consisting of a rock or pieces of rock which are struck to produce musical notes, either in combination, producing harmony, or in succession, producing melodies. In May, 2011, French percussionist Toma Gouband visited London to play at the annual Freedom of the City festival, solo and in an Evan Parker octet including Matt Wright and Lawrence Casserley on electronics. Gouband played a lithophone and other assorted means of percussion, including a bunch of tree ...
read moreFoxes Fox: Live at the Vortex
by John Eyles
Foxes Fox--Evan Parker on tenor saxophone, Steve Beresford on piano, John Edwards on bass and Louis Moholo-Moholo on percussion--first came together as a quartet in 1998. Live at the Vortex is, however, only their third album, following Foxes Fox (Emanem, 1999) and Naan Tso (Psi, 2005). Unlike its predecessors, this release--captured in February, 2007--was recorded live in concert. While the studio recordings on those earlier albums convey the energy and immediacy of the group, this live recording manages to trump ...
read moreAdam Linson: Figures and Grounds
by John Eyles
The personnel of double-bassist Adam Linson's System Quartet is so good that it sets the juices flowing even before a note of music has been heard. Figures and Grounds was recorded in January 2008, when Linson still lived in Berlin, and he took full advantage of his adopted city's resources, recruiting trumpeter Axel Dörner, bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall plus expat English drummer Paul Lytton. Linson says that his role in bringing this group together was to provide a ...
read moreLondon Improvisers Orchestra: Lio Leo Leon
by John Eyles
London Improvisers Orchestra Lio Leo Leon Psi 2011 Each year at London's Freedom of the City (FOTC) festival of improvised music, one of the most eagerly anticipated highlights is the Sunday evening appearance of the London Improvisers Orchestra (LIO). Although the LIO meets monthly throughout the rest of the year, on the first Sunday in May at FOTC they seem to produce something a bit special, not least because there is always a good ...
read moreAgusti Fernandez & Joan Saura: Vents
by John Eyles
Although their Trio Local, with saxophonist Liba Villavecchia, has been well-documented for over a decade, Vents is the first duo recording from pianist Agustí Fernández and Joan Saura, on live electronics and sampling keyboard. The album was recorded in Barcelona, between July 2009 and February 2010. It is well-titled, and so are its tracks, which share their Catalan names with the eight winds from various compass directions. Time and again during the album, this seems entirely appropriate, as the musicians ...
read moreEvan Parker & Matthew Wright: Trance Map
by John Eyles
Trance Map is part of an ongoing body of work on Psi that includes past releases by Joel Ryan and DJ Sniff, which each used Evan Parker's music as source material to be manipulated to create new works. Whereas Parker was not an active participant in those recordings, for this album he has worked collaboratively with Matthew Wright to create Trance Map, to the extent that each is credited with “co-composition." Wright is a senior lecturer at Canterbury ...
read moreDJ Sniff: EP
by John Eyles
EP is a fascinating disc on several levels. Its title is not short for “extended play"---how many people today remember those?--but for Psi proprietor Evan Parker. The disc is an elaborate hommage to Parker. Its front cover photograph shows DJ Sniff holding up an LP; close inspection of its label reveals that it is Parker's Monoceros (Incus, 1978). Inside, a second photograph (both by Caroline Forbes) shows Sniff against a pale background, with the mouthpiece of a sax arranged behind ...
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