Thermal
Ice In A Hot World
Unsounds 78U CD (2023)
THERMAL is the trio of John Butcher, Andy Moor and Thomas Lehn; active since 2001. From diverse musical backgrounds, this trio coalesce in the zone of musical activity known to savvy critics and punters alike as “free improvisation”. Butcher plays tenor and soprano sax, Moor plays low-slung electric guitar and Lehn wields his analogue synthesiser; presumably his vintage EMS Synthi A. Personally, I am very open to the inclusion of synthesisers and other electronic instrumentation into free improvisation, so this recording is of great interest to me. John Butcher is the common denominator in the equation: Butcher and Lehn have been regular collaborators over the years and Moor and Butcher have a duo project since 2013. Their album Experiments With A Leaf came out in 2015. Also interesting to note; Unsounds is a label set up by Moor in collaboration with designer Isabelle Vigier and sound artist Yannis Kyriakides in 2001.
This live recording was made at a concert at AJMI in Avignon in February of 2020, just before the world came to that abrupt pause. There are two shortish pieces and three longer ones, recorded by Bruno Levee. Lehn assumes mixing duties, and Moor was responsible for mastering, thus keeping the material close within their creative practice. You can almost feel the strength of this trio’s shared time passing; steady development, a complex integration of the individual elements; a music supremely intuitive as you would expect from these players. Creaks, bleats and interruptions; the music has a tough, galvanized coating of trust and familiarity. There’s a lot of detail in these players’ sound worlds, but no unnecessary embellishment; they manoeuvre around each other with aplomb. And there’s not an arpeggiator in sight – Lehn consistently produces beautiful, linear sounds. His noises on the introduction to “Autumn Fireflies” is one of my favourite improv moments on record I’ve heard this year.