In the yellow corner, standing tall at 13 stone is Shiver Meets Matthew Bourne Volume 1 (DISCUS MUSIC DISCUS 149CD) – a bout between the art-music trio Shiver and the respected jazz pianist Matthew Bourne, who not very long ago distinguished himself with his live duos with the great Keith Tippett (one of Tippett’s final appearances). One single track ‘Functional’ here stretches out for some 42 mins on this studio recording from 2021 made in Yorkshire.
I was grabbed from opening seconds of odd Moog sounds and thereafter found it all a compelling listen – what I’m enjoying most is what I think of as the “open” structure – free from compositional structure and four-beats to bar, allowing musicians apparently to freely move about a proposed and vast imaginary space. Bourne is throwing a few jazz piano shapes when he reaches the “table mountain” area, but likewise he’s also providing tasty cosmic sounds on his “memory moog”, seemingly a new analogue toy from renowned vendors Linn. Switching freely between the two keyboards (thanks to his new “pivot” chair), Bourne manifests wiry strength on the acoustic piano and delicately subtle tones and empathy on the moog, quite a few lightyears away from the untamed raw style of Sun Ra on that instrument. Meanwhile there’s also Chris Sharkey, known to us as leader of The Geordie Approach, a trio who realised their “northern krautrock” vision on the Shields album for this label not long ago, and who also added his guitar licks to Archer’s Anthropology Band. Sharkey produced today’s record, but more to the point he’s also credited with “live processing”, and clearly there’s a zillion zappulating effects on the magic board which he brought into Airedale on the day, which he uses now sparingly, now generously, depending on how freaky the players may be, mutating into octopoid chimeras and tripping over their long hair. Sharkey’s futuristic guitar blonks also exceed Robert Fripp for audacious overly-disguised ingenuity, allowing many mournful seagull plaints to ensue. Rhythm section is Andy Champion on electric bass and Joost Hendricks on drums.
The music emerged from two full recording sessions of playing (and there’s a plan to release more of it on Volume 2); ‘Functional’ was, impressively, the first take from the first day, and it’s here in its entirety. Going to assume this means no edits, no overdubs. Label notes hint at much pent-up energy (after lockdown and over hurdles) being unleashed in the studio when the team pushed in through the fire doors. Label notes also wisely make no claims for “modern jazz-rock fusion” or “detectable kosmische influences”, which is refreshing and earns bonus points, and in places we might say the group are inventing something quite new of their own, purely by ingenious mix of instinct and craft. It’s sufficient for us in the audience to just enjoy the very confident free playing, the exciting instrumental combinations, and above all to drench one’s bones in the very satisfying sound of the recording – vivid, upfront, maximal…you bet…you’d think Sharkey’s high-quality production services would be in high demand from every band that calls themselves a “free improvising” combo, but perhaps his phone number is ex-directory. Also there’s the all-yellow cover with plain black typography, attempting perhaps to emulate an Incus sleeve. Very good indeed. From 12th January 2023.