Peter Br: FMP 130

22 years hence, these European masters have pretty well cemented themselves in their own corners of the free improv universe: the fury, sometimes restrained, of Peter Brötzmann; the madness of Han Bennink; and the elegant wandering of Fred van Hove. But when they got together in Bremen on February 25, 1973, it was with a sense of discovery, a mutual wide-eyedness that made anything possible.

The ten tracks on this 2003 release (originally put out on FMP vinyl) are funny and strange, squalling and even cute. Bennink is still in his play-anything-and-everything mode, credited here with a long list of instruments, including self-made clarinet, rhythm box, homemade junk, oe-oe and others. Brötzmann plays clarinet and runs through the sax family, and van Hove has a celeste on hand in addition to the piano. The results are something like a goose invasion at the music box factory on the day they forgot to pay the gravity bill. There are simple melodies, crazy shifts, pianic jazz, hollering, and a clarinet duet that won't ingratiate you with the neighbors. It's good fun—way free improv in a spirit that of the three, only Bennink has retained, and quite often quite listenable.

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