For roughly a dozen years, Berlin-based Canadian baritone saxophone specialist Peter Van Huffel has led a thrash-jazz sax/bass/drums trio Gorilla Mask, a Brötzmann-meets-Black Flag highly improvised jazz with the raw power of a hardcore punk. Now, Van Huffel has moved on to a new project with a different approach that’s no less audacious, introducing it with his spring, 2024 release Meandering Demons. Callisto, as he calls it, is a Berlin-based quartet with Joe Hertenstein on drums, Antonis Anissegos on keyboards and electronics and Lina Allemano on trumpet. Van Huffel sticks with main reed, the baritone saxophone, and adds some additional electronic effects.
It’s a true international band with the Greek Anissegos and the German Hertenstein. Like Van Huffel, Lina Allemano is a Canadian expatriate who has been part of the Berlin experimental jazz scene for a number of years. Readers of this space know she is a bandleader and composer in her own right, heading up several ensembles that all test the boundaries of jazz. Given the similarities in style and the bold conception, she is almost the trumpet version of Peter Van Huffel.
We so often come across avant-garde jazz records that attempt to negotiate the improvised with the composed parts, but that comes so easily for Van Huffel. Underneath the hood of the leading edge body is an engine that’s principally advanced modern jazz; Callisto uses tradition as a launching pad for propelling Van Huffel’s music into the vanguard.
“Meandering Demons” comes charging out the gate with a blistering accelerando and when Huffel settles in with his bari blasts, Hertenstein muddies the waters with a meter-less rhythm. Huffel and Allemano trade terse, choppy banter as the tempo slows to a crawl, setting up the next, closing accelerando.
Rhythmic non-conventions also plays a key role in shaping “Ravenous Hound,” with Hertenstein maintaining an erstwhile beat on high-hat while meting out a jungle pulse on tom-toms. Allemano alone solos over that, framing the melody from the edges. Anissegos’ piano presence ramps up incrementally, improvising just behind the two-horn front line.
The free-falling cascades of shimmering chords that mark the extended intro of “Glass Sanctuary” makes way for modern jazz motifs given a fuzzy edge by Anissegos’ distorted electric piano before dissolving back into the sonic marsh of the beginning.
Allemano advanced improvisational instincts makes her a great fit for Van Huffel’s vision for his new band, showcased on the opening trumpet/drums tête-à-tête of “Interdimensional Planet.” She’s fearless, focused and commanding, setting up Van Huffel as he eases in and together they state the head before the saxophonist goes off on his own adventure. Anissegos’ own soloing is juxtaposed directly against the planned note patterns of the rest of the band.
Van Huffel has long embraced the cutting-edge use of electronics and effects in improvised music. His sax is looped and sampled as he extemporizes, then sharply cuts over to whole ensemble playing over a drum ‘n’ bass type rhythm during “Rude Awakening.” Van Huffel, Allemano and then Anissegos (on an alien sounding electric piano) stoke fires over Hertenstein’s mutated beat.
Allemano’s horn is run through effects, too, most notable on “Transient Being,” as she’s no stranger to leveraging technology, either. Van Huffel and Allemano go off side-by-side for the first section of “Barrel Of Monkeys,” an episodic piece that proves Van Huffel’s abilities at extended composition that leaves plenty of room for creative maneuvering.
Peter Van Huffel’s new band Callisto is another challenging adventure for the dauntless saxophonist and Meandering Demons is the latest chapter of a career you don’t want to miss.
Meandering Demons is currently available from Clean Feed Records and can be acquired from Bandcamp.
*** Peter Van Huffel CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
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