Nick Dunston: Colla Voce

One thing you can expect from a Nick Dunston leadership date is the unexpected. After Atlantic Extraction (OOYH, 2019), Spider Season (OOYH, 2022) and Skultura (Fun In Church, 2023), Colla Voce is something else again. Although an in-demand bassist in adventurous contemporary circles, as evidenced by stints with trumpeter Dave Douglas, guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, as a composer Dunston ranges even more widely.

Assembled from sessions in Berlin and NYC, Dunston calls on a 13-strong crew that includes the JACK string quartet, an array of other strings, the voice of the phenomenal Sofia Jernberg together with two others, a drummer and his own bass and electronics. In the liners, Dunston terms this an anti-opera. Certainly there is little operatic about it, but it could be pretty much the antithesis of anything else you care to name as well. His is a singular conception.

As if introducing a cast of characters, Dunston programs the various flavors that make up the mix over the first few tracks. The opening "Ova'churr" passes in an electronic vortex, with ethereal voices a subliminal presence. The following cut "Designated Antagonist" comprises abrupt string swipes, thwacks and drones as the JACK quartet leaps into action. Then on "Pseudocorridor" more strings underpinned by a repeating bass figure, before the entrance of an echoey doom metal bass/drum/guitar trio.

Although densely populated, many pieces feature only subsets of the assembled throng, which increasingly recur in bewildering combinations towards the end of the 13 tracks. Post-production processing contributes to the brain scrambling effect. Distorted or muffled voices and instruments wax and wane alongside untreated sound sources in a kaleidoscope of different textures, like the soundtrack to a dystopian film fragmented through a prism. Dunston's vision takes on orchestral dimensions in the grand finale of the title number, where the vocalists variously croak, whisper and soar in a culmination of sorts.

Not only do each of Dunston's releases confound expectations, they do so while sounding like no-one else. Where next? Impossible to say but, as here, you can guarantee a wild ride.