Studio version of “Brokelyn” from the album ‘Feign’:
Yesterday (December 4, 2020), Tim Berne’s Screwgun record syndicate pulled a couple of live recordings from the vault and made them available for sale, just in time for Bandcamp Friday. One of those is an archive of a 2007 David Torn/Prezens performance — click here for a full review on that one — and another is a concert souvenir from about the same time by Tim Berne’s Hardcell trio.
Hardcell was one of Berne’s main activities during the early-to-middle aughts, with Tom Rainey on drums and Craig Taborn on keyboards, though by the time this recording was made, Taborn had pulled the plug on those instruments and switched over to acoustic piano. Also by this time, the Prezens band was up and going and touring during the same time. That’s not quite the juggling act that it might seem, because Prezens is just Hardcell plus Torn. But as this release The Cosmos reminds us, there’s a gulf of difference in the basic group improv electro-acoustic approach of Prezens versus the acoustic trio still playing with some freedom but within the parameters of a brilliant Tim Berne composition.
By the time the tape started rolling, the band had already attained cruising altitude and we’re greeted with Berne’s smoldering saxophone. Turns out, we’ve dropped in on the solo-heavy middle section of “Van Gundy’s Retreat,” which first appeared in Hardcell’s antecedent band, the electrified Science Friction with same personnel plus guitarist Marc Ducret. In this acoustic trio setting, Taborn is ripping as hard on piano as he’s ever had and his ability to keep up with Berne on that wiggly theme is astounding.
“Traction” also traces back to the Science Friction days but Taborn again is the key agent for transforming this song into something else as he goes full-on Cecil Taylor before launching into the theme with Berne and Rainey and going back at it again with Rainey getting a hard groove going in support.
The last three compositions “Time Laugh,” “My First Phone” and “Brokelyn” were introduced on Hardcell’s last studio release Feign (2005). In one highlight, Rainey’s controlled bedlam thrusts him on the front line with his partners, pounding out rhythms that sync up with the stuttering lines coming from Berne and Taborn. In another moment, Rainey is the provocateur prodding Berne to blow without restraint, putting on an exclamation point by blowing up the sound of his drums to a massive din of three drummers and then elegantly downshifts to set the stage for a tranquil reflection by Berne. In the final segment, Taborn introduces a funky semi-calypso figure that Rainey feasts upon and eventually reveals itself to be an archetypal Tim Berne motif.
This isn’t an audiophile recording — it sounds somewhat distant — but it’s also easy to suss out the individual playing. Individually and collectively, Hardcell was amazing and The Cosmos confirms that.
Pick up your copy of The Cosmos from here.
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