Improvised music keyboardist Will Thompson has continued on his quest for creative music made on the spot since we last examined his handiwork under the moniker ‘WATIV’ in 2012. Since then, William A. Thompson IV had formed a duo with Italian drummer Marcello Benetti that they call ‘Trapper Keaper.’
Their 2016 self-titled debut featured the diverse talents of Mike Dillon, Dave Easley, Jeff Albert, Ashlin Parker and Rex Gregory. The duo never performed strictly as a duo on that album but the fact that they were calling the shots gave them the flexibility to mix and match these talents to give each performance its own character.
For their next project, I don’t have to tell you who is supplementing the main dudes this time because the title will: Trapper Keaper Meets Tim Berne & Aurora Nealand includes a very high profile New York Downtown saxophonist (Berne) and a New Orleans-based accordion player, saxophonist and vocalist who is every bit as audacious as Berne (Nealand). Thompson and Benetti let these two run wild to get the most out of their art, while maintaining a coherent vibe throughout this set of extemporaneous compositions.
It all gets started with “Boom,” premiering in the video above. This is a two-minute spontaneous blast that gallops out the gate at the prompt of Nealand’s primal scream, which soon finds itself in competition with Berne’s crying sax as Benetti and Thompson lay down the rhythmic and harmonic markers. You might say it ends just as it’s hitting cruising altitude, but there’s much more spontaneity to exploit on this record and no time to waste.
Trapper Keaper Meets Tim Berne & Aurora Nealand is set to drop on April 12, 2019 and it’s coming at you from Eyes and Ears Records.
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