ESP-Disk is soon offering a recent, live capture of towering figures of avant-garde jazz and underground noise music who join forces in a combustible conference of splendid spontaneity. live at pioneer works, 26 october 2023 by Anthony Braxton and Wolf Eyes dryly denotes in its title the place and time of the occasion but there’s nothing parched about the music made there that night.
Anthony Braxton — the mastermind behind so many elongated intricate, creative opuses — still likes to just get on a stage and jam with cats a generation or two behind him, and they come in all shapes and sizes. The cats this time are Wolf Eyes, a prolifically-recorded legend noise band out of Detroit. The moniker originally applied to Nate Young alone when he started it in 1996 but other members have come and gone. Currently, Young is joined by Johnny Olsen and they both play primarily electronics.
Braxton in an electro-acoustic setting isn’t novel but it’s rare enough to feel weird typing the word “Braxton” in close proximity to “electro” anything. In any case, this isn’t even his first rodeo recorded with Wolf Eyes — it’s his third — and his willingness to keep coming back to collaborate with the self-described ‘psycho-jazz’ unit speaks loudly about the gratification the avant-garde giant gets from making music with them.
live at pioneer works is two long group improvs, one running twenty minutes and the other one, sixteen. Playing electronics gives Wolf Eyes the advantage of spewing forth an almost endless array of sounds, but Braxton countered by coming equipped with an arsenal of reeds from tiny to titanic: alto, sopranino and bass saxophones.
Throughout both performances, the standout characteristic is that Wolf Eyes isn’t just performing along the sax maestro, they actively engage with him and conjure up noises and textures that blend with him. Olson also plays pipes, which helps in that its sound footprint approximates saxophones better than I would have thought it could. For his part, Braxton has characterized these get-togethers as fun and he sounds like he’s having a lot of it. He’s not overthinking at all, just going on pure instinct. And his improvisational instincts remain as intact as ever.
On the second performance as with the first, Braxton at the start whips out that big, bad bass saxophone, the low-end blurts set against a background of death pulses. Over time, he pivots to his lighter horns and Wolf Eyes accordingly adjusts, but also leaves voids in the sonic mélange and creates this whole nocturnal outdoor sound setting. A dirge develops almost imperceptibly, as the instant composition lurches toward its ending.
live at pioneer works, 26 october 2023 goes on sale at Bandcamp on January 31, 2025 and in stores February 14, 2025.
*** Wolf Eyes CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
*** Anthony Braxton CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
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