The Free Jazz Collective
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By Matty Bannon
Close your eyes. Take a deep-belly breath. Open up all of your physical and spiritual channels to receive extra-sensory stimuli from unearthly sources. Future Moons by Adams, Dunn, Haas is an album that paints vibrating visions and sings in half-familiar tongues that scratch and sweeten as they perforate the listener’s soul.
Future Moons was recorded at Sonology in Toronto and mixed by legendary producer Jeff McMurrich. It features Kieran Adams (sampler, drum machine, drums), Matthew Dunn (keyboards, electronics) and Andy Haas (saxophone, fife, hojok, live electronics). The trio is a subset of parent-group The Cosmic Range. And their close, long-running connection is clear throughout.
“We try to tap into the bigger picture and dissolve ourselves into it,” Dunn says. “We can only make these sounds together, so it’s a balancing act between the participants. We’re communicating.”
Uncanny power
The title track is a high-energy piece, chained down by a solid synth bassline and straining to break free. The saxophone screams and flails. Electronic whizz-bangs zip across the sky, raindrops plonk into puddles. Adams and Dunn manipulate and re-manipulate the temperature. Haas displays his uncanny power to make instruments speak.
“People say there’s a lot of intensity, but it’s intimate and delicate too,” says Haas, a former member of new wave group Martha and the Muffins. “I’m exploring my palette of sound. Creating patterns.”
Cry of blues
Dynastics, the final track, is typically immersive. It begins with ponderous pulses of synth and chattering electronic effects. About halfway through, the atmosphere darkens. The hojok howls from its throat. Percussive tentacles spread out. The collective volume rises and the voices coalesce until the pulses return. The mood softens. But the landscape is changed forever.
“When the intensity diminishes, there’s a spaciousness that’s kind of sensual,” Haas says. “And there’s always a cry of blues in there, floating around. It’s part of the response to the sadness in life.”
Inhaled and ingested
Future Moons is sometimes violent, occasionally nervous, always in flux. It raises bumps on the skin, twists the stomach into knots and tenderly interlocks fingers with the listener. It’s free music that is profoundly expressive – with each sound longing to be heard, felt, seen, inhaled and ingested.
“The bond between us is incredibly important,” Dunn says. “We’re people who come together and communicate in a universal language. It’s about being at play with nature. And with one another.”
The album is available on clear vinyl and as a digital download here.
Check out this video of the track Soft Nebula:
Thu Jul 07 04:00:00 GMT 2022