Ivo Perelman / Ray Anderson / Joe Morris / Reggie Nicholson: Molten Gold

Lovingly described by one critic as "a leather-lunged monster," reviews of saxophonist Ivo Perelman's albums typically attract words such as honking, squawking, squealing and apocalyptic. Perelman is not interested in the current vogue for creating safe spaces. He is not the sort of free-improv player one would, in the normal course of things, recommend to AAJers wanting to dip a neophyte toe in the genre.

But Molten Gold is recommended. And not just to newbies, but to seasoned Perelman enthusiasts, too. Over a double CD clocking in at 89:38, he only rarely ventures towards the sonic extremes that put off many listeners. More than that, the album can actually be described as mellifluous. Newbies will not have to make an Olympian leap to engage with it, while aficionados will find an unusual perspective to enjoy. One is reminded, just a little, of Pharoah Sanders' shift from pyrotechnics to rough-hewn prettiness.

Perelman is one of four improv-maestros on the disc, the others being trombonist Roy Anderson, bassist Joe Morris and drummer Reggie Nicholson. The quartet recorded the four tracks which make up the album (the separation is pretty much notional and the tracks segue into each other) in Parkwest Studios in Brooklyn in real time one day in October 2022.

The band's modus operandi reminds one of a remark Albert Ayler, one of Perelman's formative inspirations, made to the British writer Val Wilmer in an interview for her book As Serious As Your Life (Allison & Busby, 1977). Talking about his early masterpiece Spiritual Unity (ESP-Disk, 1965), Ayler said of himself, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray, "We weren't playing, we were listening to each other."

A similarly lofty degree of interaction exists throughout Molten Gold. The result is an epic wide-ranging four-way conversation which is, thanks to the eloquence and artistry of the protagonists, utterly compelling from start to finish.