Altrastrata

EDITORIAL REVIEWS
This is far and away the best thing this group has ever done (many will doubtless disagree) since they have moved from the complex rigidity of their earlier material into an altogether looser, more organic fluidity that retains some of the best of their organizing and compositional ability in an environment that, musically, has space to breath. The inclusion of drummer and amplified, processed percussionist Fabrizio Spera seems central to this new approach, at once improvisational, extended in tonal and rhythmic subtlety, and still locking into clear, coordinated stretches of translucent writing. An important release.

REVIEW
Blast is a group from Holland with a long and fine history. We can file Blast under "Rock In Opposition", subsection "Complicated European Music": knotty compositional developments, a careful attention to timbre, a rhythm section that often plays "against" the melody. Obvious formative influences such as Henry Cow and Fred Frith in his more "Balkanic" mode were still clearly audible in the most recent album recorded by the group, A Sophisticated Face (1999): an album where the group refined their aesthetics, and where the line-up (two saxophones, guitar, bass and percussions) opened up to include trumpet, violin, cello and marimba to further advance their musical language; what possibilities lay ahead was the question one had to ask oneself at the end of that record. Altrastrata tells a very different story. From the previous line-up here we find: the saxophones by Dirk Bruinsma, who's as usual very effective on soprano and propulsive on baritone; Frank Crijns on guitar; Paed Conca on bass; all three also play devices, electronics and electro-acoustic objects (and no, the liner notes are not of much help in this respect). The group appears to have decided to adopt (at least on the first four tracks on the CD, which to me are the most successful and the newest and most stimulating ones) quite a different attitude when it comes to the studio, timbre, and the overdubbing process. Walking Matters, which opens the CD, works well as an introduction, but it's the three long pieces that follow (H.O.I, Tectonic Re-Birth and Multi Salsa, the last with a very good performance by guest artist Pasquale Innarella on French horn) that bring the process to its full fruition. The key element to this transformation is (acoustic and electrified) drummer and percussionist Fabrizio Spera, whose work here widens the available options. Spera makes good use of his considerable background in the fields of "acoustic" improvisation - hence, the multiplication of sources, with a great deal of --Beppe Colli, Clouds and Clocks

Number of Discs: 1

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