Label: Pyroclastic Records, 2022
Personnel - Trevor Dunn: bass; Mary Halvorson: guitar; Ches Smith: drums, timpani, conga; Carla Kihlstedt: violin, viola; Mariel Roberts: cello; Anna Webber: flutes; Oscar Noriega: clarinets.
Brooklyn-based bassist Trevor Dunn (Melvins, Nels Cline Singers) steps up the game started 18 years ago with his excellent powerhouse Trio-Convulsant (featuring guitarist Mary Halvorson and drummer Ches Smith) by expanding it into a septet with the addition of an improvisation-oriented chamber jazz quartet called Folie à Quatre. Together, they play seven Dunn compositions that, even getting darker and obscure in places, shine in their own way. The inspiration came from two directions: the album Blue Desmond (RCA, 1962) by American saxophonist Paul Desmond, and the Convulsionnaires of Saint-Médard, an 18th-century French Christian sect considered mystic, heretic and political. The result is a sinuous chamber-jazz-metal amalgam with plenty of energy and an insightful perspective.
“Secours Meurtriers” (French for ‘murderous reliefs’) inducts the bizarre practices with Anna Webber’s flute introduction leading to rock passages of progressive vision and complex meter (13/4). The cello of Mariel Roberts arrives confidently with delay effect, and after a few minutes of microtonal flute incursions, Halvorson’s rock guitar vamp solidifies the texture for Smith’s drum expansions. Dancing bass lines complete the scenario.
On “The Asylum’s Guilt”, a bass figure delivered at a dodgy tempo makes us search, forming the core over which the rest of the instruments circle around with moderation. The polyrhythmic “Restore All Things” also plays with figures and tempos, flowing with a slight funk disposition and pedal-point passages that create eerie mystery. In turn, “1733” is based on numerology; a cinematic move that brings together the wild action of Tarantino and the supernatural thrillers of M. Night Shyamalan. After a bowed bass-cello-percussion inception reinforced with power chords, Smith thickens the path with rambunctious drumming before the group sinks down into atmospheric ambiguity. The final section is in line with power metal methodologies.
One of the most brilliant pieces is “Saint-Médard”, which evolves with counterpoint, occasional polyphony, and a dazzling instrumentation. The tempos are uncommon (3/2, 5/2 and 8/8) and Halvorson’s buzzing guitar probes tones and textures with stereo ripples. If “Eschatology” is expeditious and intricate at the same time, featuring a fluid in-and-out solo by Oscar Noriega on bass clarinet and Halvorson’s flickering guitar fluxes, then “Thaumaturge” has Dunn opening the curtain for a contemplative 9/4 journey with no major startles.
Sèances captures the musicians in their heights and also demonstrates Dunn’s composing capabilities, being a well-invented mesh of sounds from different genres that collide around the space.
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Secours Meurtriers ► 02 - Saint-Médard ► 03 - Restore All Things