Noise-jazz trio Kuzu has been actively making themselves an evolving, going concern since forming in 2017 and dropping a debut record Hiljaisuus in 2018 (which was released on Aerophonic the following year). Later in 2019, they did 20 dates across the USA, and the one in Milwaukee has been designated the recorded fodder for their second album, Purple Dark Opal.
Purple Dark Opal represents further synthesis by a band that was already pretty good at reading each other’s minds. Saxophonist Dave Rempis, electric guitarist Tashi Dorji and drummer Tyler Damon continue to draw heavily from their experimental/improvised music backgrounds and let everything rest on instinct.
“To the Quick” is the lone track on Purple Dark Opal, meaning the two titles are completely interchangeable. But the music isn’t very interchangeable with the music from anyone else, and it’s not just because there aren’t many bass-less sax/guitar/drums bands making up the music as they play it.
The uniqueness comes from the way by which the band settles into form. Damon’s tom-tom patters – before anyone else joins him – expands into the full use of his kit. Dorji’s electric guitar is so subdued at first, it mimics the sound of a bowed bass before stepping out into the open with an acerbic, rock sonority. Rempis begins lightly on saxophone while Damon’s drums rumbles below, his searching notes turn into the drones of long-held notes broken by Interstellar Space-era Trane-isms. Nine minutes into this nearly hour long free jazz extravaganza, the lid is blown off for a full four minutes before retrenchment.
During the downtime, Rempis begins to noodle around quietly and Dorji’s arpeggiates his chords, letting out a rugged, scratchy timbre. Damon is the first to get rowdy again, but somewhat subdued by using his hands, not drumsticks. The density gradually picks up and both Dorji and Rempis are improvising on the same wavelength. Rempis bounces back and forth between the extreme registers of his baritone saxophone and in another episode off the rails, Rempis goes rogue on his tenor as Dorji summons Derek Bailey’s ghost. And finally, Rempis reaches for a third sax – back to alto – and makes it sound as urgent as a cardiac arrest while Damon and Dorji wring alien intonations from their instruments.
Within the last 10 minutes is a drawn-out wind-down that allows Rempis to stretch out slower and develop ideas more fully, during which the band pulls back the rubber band and builds up the tension one last time to set up a cathartic, concluding release.
Aerophonic Records is putting out Purple Dark Opal on February 18, 2020.
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