REABSORB (Orenda) 8/10 There are no preliminaries: the blow to the solar plexus is immediate, and once the music has you on the canvas it keeps pummeling you – appropriately enough for a piece called Hit It as Loudly as Possible. It’s not just Jon Armstrong’s blistering tenor saxophone, it’s…
Category: Album Reviews
@BREMEN 1964 & 1975 (Sunnyside/Birdland) 9.5/10 In 1964 the fieriest band Charles Mingus ever assembled lobbed in Germany for the first time – and promptly started playing 45 minutes late. The concert (most of which is present on this four-album set) swiftly made up for that, however, being crammed with…
SOMETIMES HOME CAN GROW STRANGER THAN SPACE (AAO) 8/10 Originally premiered in 2018 for the centenary of the end of the Great War, Sometimes Home Can Grow Stranger than Space contains highly personalised perspectives by three composers: Peter Knight evokes the irreparable grief of the parents of the dead, Tilman…