When the Kansas-based keyboardist and composer Shawn E. Hansen first got with Australian double bassist Clayton Thomas and the percussion whiz from New York City, Mike Pride, to make a record together, they knew there was a hurdle to overcome because they aren’t closely situated with each other. However, that arguably presented the type of challenge they relished when they decided to overcome a great physical distance with each other to collaborate on some group improvisations.
In any case, DREAMBAND is the fruit that bore out of their partnership, and sure enough, it’s unpredictable and overall not like anything else out there.
DREAMBAND is another pandemic-era project, recorded with each band member laying down their parts far apart from the others. For some musicians, something could be lost in terms of coaction when they’re not in the same room together, and that could especially be true for improvisational music. But Hansen, Pride and Thomas aren’t your everyday musicians and they figured out how to fit their talents together in an inspired way, even if they couldn’t fit together in real time.
It’s left to the listener to decide who recorded over whom but if anyone can conjure up a musical narrative from a drum kit that can stand as the foundation for a group-composed piece, it’s Mike Pride. We’ve tasted what he’s capable of on his own in taking in a couple of prior entries in his “12 for 40 Series,” which also previously featured small group experimental collaborations.
Pride sets the table for “As Silent as The Sleeper Is” and Hansen and Thomas feast on it; the latter two subscribe to the less is more approach, painting timbral strokes with organ and a low bass murmur. Pride’s glockenspiel is sprinkled amid Thomas’ bottomed-out scrapes for “Old Unities,” but the drummer soon pulls out other tools in his percussion arsenal as Hansen synth drones and Thomas’ bass bellows blend together as one.
The hollowed-out sonic imagery of the first two performances is followed by the denser drums powering “Hidden Behind the Night,” a commanding exploit that’s countered by Hansen’s increasingly urgent synthesizer. The Hansen-led “Sent Voices” goes further unhinged with its sibilation largely constructed from contorted samples.
Hansen wrings wounded-guitar sounds from his keyboard on “Where Geography,” which combined with Thomas’ stand-up bass working subtleties on a single chord, portrays the singular minimalism genius of The Necks. The three exhibit perfect unity for “She Holds No Sway” in spite of the ferocious bass scrapes and the song continually threatening to burst at the seams.
DREAMBAND is available now, from Bandcamp.
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