Label: Gold Lion Records, 2021

Personnel - Jon Raskin: baritone and alto saxophone, vocals; Darren Johnston: trumpet, vocals; Ross Hammond: electric guitar; Jon Bafus drums.

The Sacramento-based Flatland Quartet has one foot in the folk music and the other planted in free improvisation, and Songs From The Urban Forest, their explorative debut work, is here to prove it. The group boasts a two-horn frontline with the saxophonist Jon Raskin (from Rova Saxophone Quartet) pairing up with the Canadian-born trumpeter Darren Johnston, while the favorably atypical textures at the base come as a result of the long-standing rhythmic alliance between guitarist Ross Hammond and drummer Jon Bafus.

“Joe Hill’s Last and Final Will” opens the record with a sort of mantric vibe that is well rooted in the American blues and folk traditions. The lyrics are from Joe Hill himself, a Swedish-American labor activist and songwriter who was executed in 1915 for a murder he probably didn’t commit.

Different instrumentation plays a crucial role here, with the group trying other formats to encourage sonic diversity. Take for instance “The Aural Dialogues”, a continuous two-horn exchange that starts overtly percussive as a consequence of extended techniques (slap tongue, multiphonics, air notes), and then becomes fluently conversational with occasional contrapuntal activity before finishing with a series of rapid lines. It’s the antithesis of “Light and Sound on the River”, a guitar-percussion duet whose six-string noodling, brooding tones and changeable rhythm result in country noir ambiance.

All the same, the most powerful chapters of this journey are the ones where the four members are fully involved, loading them with sharp-witted melodic phrases, texture and pulse. As a case in point, “Cries From the Central Valley” lays disconsolate alto supplications and wailing trumpet calls on top of a deep-rooted country music that, after a while, flirts with rock and roll, in the line of the Bakersfield sound. Expect a temperature rise before the calm steel guitar conclusion.

“The King of Boulevard Park” is fantastically built with a 5/8 drum figure that, demarcating from the slowed-down guitar work, creates a fine polyrhythmic feel. Modal chords and staccato comping with splashes of twirling licks open the door for a wild guitar improvisation, and all ends up in a free jazz romp with Raskin’s untamed baritone totally into it.

“Valley Clouds in Winter” concludes the session with a lamenting glance while mixing indie-rock, folk, and free improv. En route, there’s plenty of syncopation and entanglement in the rhythm that leads to a final straight-eight rock progression sustaining overlapped ostinatos.

All sales of this record goes to the Sacramento Food Bank, which is another good reason for you to get it.