Lars Scherzberg: Top Floor Encounter

The first phase of jazz was characterized by melodic improvisation. In its second phase improvisers dealt with harmony and, in the current phase, density is the improviser's concern. So says Anthony Braxton—if I understand him correctly (if anyone does). If so, then Top Floor Encounter may be as characteristic of our time as Armstrong's "Weatherbird" was to the first phase of jazz or Trane's "Giant Steps" was to the second. I didn't say "as important as" or "as good as"—only history can make the first statement and only a fool would make the second.

Beyond the instrumentation, I'm not so sure I'd call this a jazz CD at all (though I'm not about to get into that discussion here or anywhere without a license to serve alcoholic beverages). In his liner notes, Harald Borges says as much, so while I might be wrong, I am not alone. He also namechecks Webern and, to the extent that this is very quiet music with a minimal density of notes, that is a fair comparison. But Webern is packed with incident and his placement of the few notes he uses are calculated to create an almost crushing tension and release. There is no calculation here.

This is non-idiomatic improvisation with a capital N. There seems to be a lot of Cage in the methods of Messrs. Arnal and Hughes and Herr Scherzberg (the first two were born in Baltimore and Rochester respectively and Scherzberg was born in Hamburg). This seems to be experimental music in that there was no preconceived structure, theme or indeed concept—at least not beyond the concept of there being no concept. How does it work? I suppose you'd have to ask Arnal, Hughes and Scherzberg. This is a CD that asks questions. Answers seem almost beside the point.