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December 2006
gig reviews

Jonathan Bratoeff
Dreamtime
Patrick Cornelius Quartet with Phil Robson
Freefall with Stefan Werni and Christian Jendreiko
John Etheridge

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December 2006 gig reviews by Chris Parker

Freefall with Stefan Werni and Christian Jendreiko

Tuesday 12

Freefall with Stefan Werni and Christian Jendreiko provided a fascinating evening's music, combining and recombining as they did in a variety of freely improvising (and occasionally more structured) configurations.

Trumpeter Tom Arthurs and reeds player Lothar Ohlmeier kicked off proceedings with a beautifully judged ten minutes of spontaneous interaction in which Arthurs showed off one of the purest, surest brass sounds you'll ever hear and the poised, elegant Ohlmeier floated, rumbled and creaked on bass clarinet.

After a trio improvisation (Ohlmeier/Arthurs/electronics manipulator Christian Jendreiko) Ohlmeier and Jendreiko were joined by bassist Stefan Werni and drummer Milo Fell, Ohlmeier (on tenor) producing a mellow, glowingly ripe saxophone sound relatively unusual in free music.

A riveting duo featuring Arthurs and pianist Julie Sassoon was followed by a 'time' piece centred on a simple repeated figure, in which Sassoon and Jendreiko in particular hit sparks off each other's playing in a wonderfully rumbustious piece of spontaneous interplay in which Sassoon (like Keith Tippett) proved that freely improvised (albeit in this case within a structure) piano playing can be imbued with all the delicacy and finesse that you'd expect from a classical sonata.

Arthurs, too, simply shone on flugelhorn, his tone rich, burnished yet robust. Sheer delight, and proof, were it needed, that free music, often regarded by the mainstream press as 'difficult', can be relatively easy on the ear.

 

 

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