Free jazz, free improvisation, undefined sonic adventure without boundaries, call it what you will, exists in those lesser patrolled or policed areas of the musical wastelands where few seem to tread or explore. It’s here where QUALM, a loosely assembled quartet comprising of saxophonists Philipp Hagar and Andrew Bernstein, the later from the rather excellent Horse Lords, Christian Büdel on drums, and Sebastian Dyrschkaon electric bass and synth, are free to pursue ideas, charting auditory pathways and exploring ideas as they literally pass through their heads at that very moment. This is a soundtrack to creativity in its purest, sense – both expansive and microscopically detailed at the same time – music being born in real time. I make it sound as if this is a musical genre that has just fallen from the skies. It hasn’t, of course, but here you really do get a sense of what it’s all about, how music in real-time is crafted and performed when the group’s sole purpose is one of encounter.
Recorded over one day in one long free-flowing session Let’s Find Those Parrots In The Clouds really benefits from a deep dive when it comes to listening. A simple flick through or just a track here or there really doesn’t cut it if you really want to get to the heart of the matter. I’m not saying you have to studiously dissect every second either, this music is best experienced if you just let it ‘hang’ in the space you reside. That way it slowly permeates its way in. It’s beautiful, at times deeply uplifting music that will make its presence felt if you allow it too. Now, three minutes into the opening twelve minute ‘If I had To Choose, I’d Rather Be a Regular Zebra Than Some Freakish Horse’ the uninitiated among you may well be reaching for the off button as Hagar and Bernstein begin stirring up a mighty storm of horn blasts and menacing motifs as drums and bass dance to a crazy, whirling dervish beat, building layer upon layer of discordant grooves. The ghosts of Ayler and Trane hang like sonic shaman in the air as below four European explorers pay their respects in the most beautiful ways.
Hang in there guys, these are the moments where projects like this live or die, minds are truly opened or forever closed. Stay with it, it’s hugely worth especially as things are about to get funky. ‘A Sudden Qualm Of Sickness Overcame Us, While We Were On A Tub Riding Down To The River To Find A Place To Dream’ draws a little from Defunkt or Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time in it’s abstract grooviness, Hagar and Bernstein duelling over riffs and statements. There is an Arabic essence in the mix somewhere too, just can’t put my finger on the exact source. ‘It Takes Not Much To Light The Fuse On The Powder Keg, Which We’ve Built Ourselves, Just To Avoid Dealing With Our Own Demons’ – these titles are both a blessing and a curse to those on a tight word count!! – is pure atmospheric theatre, like strolling through some exotic landscape where weird and wonderful birds coo and caw in unison – while ‘Holy Smoke, It Flies High Up In The Sky’ is maybe the most straightforward track here. Slowly building on a repetitive motif, Hagar and Bernstein build layer upon layer of ideas, each slightly deviating from the last, whilst underpinned by Büdel’s thoughtful, conservative placement of beats. Ten minutes in and the sonic tower, by now reaching high in the sky is starting to sway, there is a sense of alarm as the horns begin to take on a more frantic air. Everything could quite easily come falling down here in a cacophonous heap. But it doesn’t. That would be too obvious. QUALM are anything but obvious. Instead, as if pulling the parachute cords (or ‘chords’) the quartet return to ground in graceful style. There is download bonus track that reminds me very much of Roscoe Mitchell’s exploration into sound but for CD purposes the four previous tracks are more than enough to devour.
In any guise Let’s Find Those Parrots In The Clouds is an impressive offering. For a debut recording from what is a new collaboration of musicians this is very special indeed and really sets quite a high bar in my own ‘best of year’ thinking. An excellent, hugely rewarding journey into improvisation, creativity and musical boundary pushing. Highly recommended to those of you with even the slightest of an inquisitive ear.
Review by Del Day
Del Day is proprietor of independent record shop Union Music Store in Lewes, DJ (Songs From The Ark) and journalist with published work in Shindig, JazzReview, CMP, Groovy Times, Americana-UK and others.
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