Label: Out of Your Head Records, 2020

Personnel - Tim Berne: alto saxophone; Craig Taborn: piano; Michael Formanek: acoustic bass; Gerald Cleaver: drums

Immensely talented, the American bassist Michael Formanek, besides coloring the modern creative and avant-garde jazz genres with intelligent lower grooves and quirky pulses for more than three decades, is hailed as an amazing composer. The music on the digital-only album, Pre-Apocalyptic, was captured live in 2014, being now released as part of the Untamed series presented by the Out of Your Head Records. Here, Formanek surfaces with his quartet of extraordinary gifted players - Tim Berne on alto saxophone, Craig Taborn on piano and Gerald Cleaver on drums - to present seven outstanding compositions.

The unique personalities of the musicians fill the compelling compositional frameworks with peculiarities, and “Pong” opens the record like a soft carpet that soon reveals ripples and shading as its thematic riff becomes rhythmically accentuated. Berne works the dynamics of his solo with expressionistic flair and sharp hooks, while Formanek employs briefly the bow, revolving around the main rhythmic figure.

Besides the opener, three other pieces appeared on the 2012 ECM album Small Places, with the title cut bursting at the seams with the energy, endurance, tenacity and perspicuity of the quartet. The other two are “Soft Reality”, a treacle-slow, dark-hued rubato meditation, and “Rising Tensions and Awesome Light”. The latter kicks off with Formanek navigating the tonal range of his instrument with a fleet-fingered pizzicato, before laying down an awesome groove in eleven. Pairing down with Cleaver as a locomotion rhythmic engine with an aptitude to naturally convey and shift odd-meter groove, Formanek also has in Taborn a fantastic collaborator. The pianist mesmerizes on this particular piece with the incredible speed, control and ease that he manages his entangling pianism.

One of the most beautiful pieces here is “The Distance”, a fully laid-back, lyrical ballad where Berne shows a tender, more melodious side and cleaner tone, Cleaver brushes with sensitivity, and Formanek exhibits his soloing facility. The piece, written for the 18-piece Ensemble Kolossus, was subjected to a successful adaptation for the quartet format.

The 14-minute “Intro and Real Action” is the only unreleased piece on the album, featuring Cleaver in an exciting action/reaction dialogue with himself right after the circular trajectories of the head, delivered in seven, come into effect. The record concludes with “Twenty Three Neo”, whose relaxed flow is carried by another ground bass figure.

Formanek and his associates draw lyrical intensity from these modern sonic sculptures. Even when playing live, their deeply explorative musical sense remains effortless.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Rising Tensions and Awesome Light ► 05 - The Distance ► 06 - Small Places