Label: RogueArt Records, 2023

Personnel - Fred Frith: electric guitar; Susana Santos Silva: trumpet.

Captured live in France in 2021, Laying Demons to Rest marks the second collaboration (the first in duo) between British avant-garde guitarist Fred Frith and inventive Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva. On the heels of the memorable double-disc trio album Road (Intakt, 2021), which conquered our ears and senses with incredible guitar-trumpet-saxophone moments, Frith delivers nearly 42 minutes of continuous free improvisation, weaving an off-the-wall musical fabric centered on timbre and atmospherics.

The duo embraces vast amorphousness within a progressive structure that begins with droning trumpet, airy sounds, electronic noises, and dissonant chords. Then the crystalline guitar drops give way to a distortion-soaked provocation that skyrockets intelligible trumpet phrases in the upper registers.

The story develops with cinematic suspense and the roles readjust; now they set piercing guitar screeches against low-pitched brass. An instant later, we hear organ-like sounds with a percussive tract in the bass notes of Frith’s axe. Concurrently, Santos ruminates via popping sounds just to raise notes to an opera house level.

Several suspended passages keep the tension alive but the duo extricates from raucous conversations by focusing on simple ostinatos that create a strobelike repetition.

These two creatives have immense musical potential and already proved their skills. This recording, despite being an unrepeatable product of their distinct sound worlds, felt somewhat dry. At times, I wished their tone-paintings had some more grip, something less sketchy and more palpable in terms of rhythmic expression.

Label: Intakt Records, 2021

Personnel - Fred Frith: electric guitar, voice; Jason Hoopes: electric bass; Jordan Glenn: drums; Susana Santos Silva: trumpet (CD2 - #1,4); Lotte Anker: saxophones (CD2 - #2,3).

The 72-year-old British multi-instrumentalist and composer Fred Frith has been a prolific stalwart in the avant-garde scene for many decades. Road is a double disc release in which he comes up with a seven-movement suite performed live at the Week-End Fest in Germany with his long-time Bay Area trio - featuring Jason Hoopes on electric bass and Jordan Glenn on drums. If the Disc One demonstrates his ability to create freely without being concerned with any particular genre, then Disc Two is an excellent avant-jazz odyssey where the trio is augmented with the presences of the Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and the Danish saxophonist Lotte Anker. These two distinguished soloists had played with the trio on a number of occasions before.

Assembling and molding abstract shapes through a fusion of idioms, the suite works with the low and high-pressure atmospheres of its surroundings. One can spot noir metal-like guitar demeanors and free funk bass hints (“Lost Weekend 1”); polished jazzy outfits with rhythmic inclinations for world music (“Lost Weekend 3”); electronics-drenched sounds, drones and primitive rhythmic patterns (“Lost Weekend 6”) in contrast with a synth-infused guitar liquidity that collide with furious sudden discharges (“Lost Weekend 4”); as well as diffuse funk-rock infiltration (“Lost Weekend 7”).

Disc Two begins with the 18-minute “Color of Heat”, where Frith and Silva dish out guitar washes and uncannily pristine brushstrokes, respectively, with a hankering for something in the vein of Don Cherry fusion experiments. Things darken considerably in tone, only to radiate light moments later, right before being electrified again in the last segment. Silva’s trumpet also crisscrosses the rhythmic flux of “Color of Heart”, which starts off with nuanced bass runs, guitar staccatos and immersive drum work. There are seamless shifts in mood here, with ethereal chants, trumpet’s air techniques, vocals, and electronic ostinatos being added.

“The Trees Speak” is definitely a favorite. Set in motion by woody bass plucks, synth-guitar harmonies and a tropicalia-like rhythm, the energy of this piece is vividly amplified by Anker’s tenor saxophone. She moves from the lower registers to the higher when the intensity slows down, seeking timbral allurement in the company of Frith’s oblique guitar. One can smell exoticism for a while, before the wind blows vehemently against a final robust texture.

Expressing his undeniable passion for sounds and moods, Frith, in such a good company, turns Road into a triumph of emphatic expectations.