Nels Cline: Consentrik Quartet

While Nels Cline has been playing the guitar-hero rock star for the past two decades with Wilco, he continues to release his own solo recordings under various names (including the Nels Cline 4 and the Nels Cline Singers, which, amusingly, contain no vocalists) tailored toward the avant-garde side of jazz (with the notable exception of his lush, lovely jazz orchestra Blue Note release from 2016, Lovers). His 2025 release, Consentrik Quartet, brings together some of the finest jazz musicians working in NYC (and who all have many recordings under their own names): Ingrid Laubrock on saxophone, Chris Lightcap on bass and Tom Rainey on drums. This album in particular seems to focus on Cline's compositional skills more than his well-established improvisational ones. Not to say that he does not stretch out with his guitar at times, especially toward the end of the album, but this is a more collected outing than usual.

Consentrik Quartet is an appropriate name for the group; the musicians circle around the common core of Cline's structures and provide layers that give the songs even greater strength. All the musicians are known for often playing difficult and demanding music, and they tightly adhere to the changing tempos and textures of the compositions. The opening numbers set the mood for the album. First, "The Returning Angel," starts with a melancholy recurring guitar motif, then the rest of the band joins in, playing around the riff. It resembles an orchestral chamber piece, and leads into "The 23," where Laubrock delivers a lovely sax solo over a hard bop rhythm that would not be out of place on one of John Lurie's Lounge Lizards albums. From there, Cline's songs switch from spacious soundscapes to intense rhythmic romps.

While full-blown pyrotechnics from Cline and Laubrock of the kind that might be found in their other recordings are not here, there is plenty of intense playing and interaction between the two, with Lightcap and Rainey laying down rhythmic terrain for them to traverse. For example, "Slipping into Something" starts out sedately with Cline playing a lovely melody on guitar—then the rest of band burst in, changing the tempo into a rollicking number, with Laubrock and Cline dueling in some of the most robust playing on the album. It is fascinating to hear how well the two play off of each other, almost telepathic.

But there are also songs like "Inner Wall," an introspective, hauntingly beautiful piece with Laubrock playing long notes on her sax while Cline strums behind her and Lightcap bows his bass. Rainey comes in toward the end of the song to offer a counterpoint to the melody, which then leads into one of the loudest song on the album, "Satomi," dedicated to Satomi Matsuzaki of the group Deerhoof.

The album ends much as it began: the penultimate number, "Question Marks (The Spot)" is led in by Lightcap alone, then joined by the full band, with Laubrock and Cline building tension with their solos against each other, reaching for the cosmos as the song ends. Then the final number, "Time of No Sirens," brings us back down to Earth, Cline playing a calming array of notes as Laubrock slides in over Rainey's snare and cymbals and Lightcap's bowing.

Consentrik Quartet ably demonstrates Cline's formidable ability at composition in addition to his extraordinary guitar playing, as well as the exciting empathetic interplay between Laubrock and Cline that makes one hope for more recordings from this ensemble (as well as live performances). It ranks as one of Cline's finest releases, and one of the best releases this year.