Pipe Dream (LUMO RECORDS LM 2023-14) played by the Lina Allemano Four is a sort-of crossover work containing elements of jazz, improvisation, and the “feel” of chamber music – even if it isn’t explicitly composed music, which it may be in places. Leader, trumpeter and composer Lina Allemano is from Toronto and plays a lot in Berlin, and she’s joined here by Brodie West (alto sax), Andrew Downing (double bass) and Nick Fraser (drums).
The eight-minute ‘Dragon Fruit’ is a good instance of what the group is capable of – unexpected dynamics and shifts in mood, plus a strange shifting between intimate chamber-ensemble music and more obviously blues-inflected jazz riffing. I like the way Allemano is able to martial and direct her sounds, evidently with some care and attention to the individual voices of the instruments, but the music ends up a shade too manicured, too poised; I keep hoping for an emotional release, a moment of epiphany conveyed by the music, or a burst of impassioned freaking-out from one of the soloists. Instead, they’re like storytellers who have to explain everything, leaving out no detail, regardless of how trivial it may be. A little ellipsis wouldn’t kill ya. This mannered, verbose approach continues into the long suite, Parts I-IV of ‘Plague Diaries’, a long set which occupies the last two-thirds of the album. To her credit, Allemano manages to score a wide variety of musical change into this suite, veering from episodes of introverted and isolated contemplation, to restless pacing around the room in a semi-frantic manner. The players perform it well, but fail to inject much personality into it.
As you may have guessed, ‘Plague Diaries’ is another piece of lockdown music, and Allemano structures it as a “musical diary” piece, reflecting on her own feelings as much as the “starkly brutal events” she claims to have witnessed at the time of the pandemic. I don’t deny those feelings weren’t real, but she hasn’t successfully reinscribed them into music. Her mental progress is reflected in the track titles, which pass further into pessimism with every step, such that the last pieces are titled ‘Hunger and Murder’ and ‘Doom and Doomer’. Given such strong titular themes with plenty of potential for excitement, it’s a real shame we don’t get music that can match them in terms of drama or intensity. (23/01/2023)