The American label Neither / Nor Records has been home to some fine examples of American free music, but today’s set Stranger Becoming (n/n 020) showcases three European contemporaries – Hans Koch, Frantz Loriot, and Jonas Kocher. We’ve enjoyed them singly and in other group contexts, but this trio was formed in 2020, and it seems that ever since their first concert in Germany they’ve been working together to develop this very particular form of music which is something they can own, which they can work on and improve over time.
I’m usually all at sea when it comes to deciphering musicological language, but I think some of the key elements at play are repeated patterns and figures (much like Morton Feldman), and half-complete melodic lines; along with this there’s an interest in long tones to produce harmonic effects, and something called “pure sound production”, which I take to mean getting the instruments to generate sounds for their own sake. Interesting nexus of tensions in that brew; it’s almost as though with one hand they were relinquishing certain aspects of “purist” free improv, while also attempting to rebuild certain precepts of classical modernism on their own terms, working to their own private book of rules. Certainly the clarinettist Koch is one player with a classical background, although he quit that racket to become a free player (one apogee of achievement being his concerts with Cecil Taylor in the 1980s).
Other featured attractions: the sheer oddness of their sound, created by clarinet, viola, and accordion. The versatility of the trio, now upbeat and peppery (check out the hoppermaroo ‘Relinquished Rifles’), now mournful and introspective (‘All Told’, a modernist lento ballad of the disappointed heart), now confused and musing on life’s ambiguous veil, as on ‘Found Bodies’. The economy and compacted playing, each piece a detailed miniature, often filled with useful information and little time wasted on “explorations”. A strong and worthwhile set. From 2nd March 2023.