John Butcher / Eddie Prevost: Higher Lever Levitations Vol 1 Unearthed

Enduring connections. UK free music veterans, drummer Eddie Prevost and saxophonist John Butcher first shared a stage in 1990, as part of guitarist Derek Bailey's famed Company weeks, but they still find plenty of worthwhile things to say to each other on Unearthed. Their encounters have been many over the intervening years, including several previous duo efforts. However, what lends this occasion its distinctive flavor is Prėvost 's decision to bring along a full kit rather than the pared-down elements that he has favored in the past.

Given the generous 78-minute program of three long-form pieces, the shortest of which breaks the quarter-hour barrier, there is no rush from the principals who convey the sense of pacing themselves through a series of organically evolving exchanges. They know when to pull back or sit out, without awkward junctures. Both transmit a feeling of careful control. Not that there is anything reined in, but nothing seems accidental or random, even when a Prevost explosion whips Butcher into a spinning dervish-like cycle of repeated skirling as he does on "Digging."

Unlike in his tenure with the seminal improv outfit AMM, Prėvost performs more within the bounds of instrumental convention here, acting as a grounding influence, imparting an elastic momentum, demonstrating tonal smarts, his rhythms continuously flexed, crisp and precise. Nothing he plays would have been unfamiliar to Max Roach though Prėvost's marshaling of the component sounds is deeply personal.

Butcher has developed a coherent and expansive language that co-opts a lexicon outside the saxophone's customary envelope, notes splintering into their harmonics, blaring as if subject to electronic distortion, summoning insect-like stridulations, giving a thrilling aura of ignoring the rules, always begging the question of what will come next?

The listening and responsiveness between the pair are palpable. Just two examples from among many include the passage early in "Tap Root," where the drummer's insistent rolls interlock with Butcher's reiterated soprano saxophone trills, to give them wings and send them soaring aloft into the rafters of the rural Essex church where this recording took place in June 2023, and then the cymbal coloration which provides the perfect cushioning as the saxophonist turns reflective, drifting earthward, later in the same piece.

In combination they generate abundant sparks, whether derived from inspired symbiosis or fearless individual expression, enough to keep the listener entranced, with minimal treading water en route.