Elements of jazz and improvisation – and many styles within these genres – blend freely on hi res heart (DISCUS MUSIC DISCUS 108CD), a trio project featuring the English players Martin Archer, Charlotte Keefe, and Martin Pyne. The 12 pieces here were recorded piecemeal, each player starting off their compositional idea and circulating their recorded part, allowing the others to add their parts and let the piece build. (Yes, they were isolated and it’s another lockdown album.) This method allowed the threesome a good deal of wriggle-room and spontaneity, and there’s barely a moment where the music fails to sizzle. Expect to hear exciting and unexpected collisions of woodwinds (Archer), trumpet and flugelhorn (Keefe) and percussion (Pyne) jostling for space. Pyne especially adds much zing with his vibraphone and toy piano. No lines are drawn, and melodic phrases, hard bop and even up-beat Dixieland stylings are permitted, alongside the atonal free improvisation moments and abrasive sound production techniques, especially from the wind and brass sections. Archer (who came up with the idea) had the Leo Smith Trio in mind with this line-up, and brought his own AACM preoccupations to the picnic, but also respects the musical histories of his two collaborators. Not only that, but everyone pulled their weight in what appears to have been a democratic and productive moment. In the method of assembly, perhaps not too far apart from Zappa and his so-called “xenochrony”, but Archer and his crew tread territories beyond that. (12/05/2021)
