Dominic Lash Quartet - Extremophile

ATTN:Magazine

Extremophile staggers rather than swings. Stumbles rather than grooves. I grimace as the drums stall and speed up, like fawn hooves flailing for purchase on an icy surface, as guitar and saxophone swerve overhead like counterbalancing limbs, and Lash’s own contrabass churns between wonk and skew. Like a clown with a cream pie, the Quartet defy the inevitable fall for a comical length of time, teasing me with the façade of improvisatory chaos. They never fall over. This theatrical arrangement of giddy sways and sudden missteps is, of course, all for show, feigning imbalance and danger to snub the drudgery of straight, safe, equidistant strides, parading teeter-totter and tempted fate without ever actually nearing collapse. Such is the mastery of the players at work. There is no genuine risk. Extremophile can splay into all kinds of dissonant mess, and the Quartet can be safe in the knowledge that they’ll always have the ability to tug everything swiftly back into line if needs be. As if to demonstrate this fact, the record is punctuated by these little passages of melodic synchronicity, with woodwinds mimicking eachother precisely before veering back to the disorderly brink.

While tracks like “Mr S.B.” spend nine minutes in this jagged, precarious funk – Alex Ward’s guitar slurring out solos, Ricardo Tejero’s saxophone thrusting upward like a startled horse – pieces like “Slailing” press slowly and anxiously into dissonant intervals, sustaining slanted harmonies like advanced gymnastic poses, spread out over silence by the patient, resting-pace recuperations of breath and bowing arm. Even at a snail’s pace, the kilter is still very much off. And then we hurtle into the 14-minute conclusion of “Mixed, Mixed”, and I’m led to doubt my faith in the Quartet’s ability to reassemble itself: the energy turns feral and vigorous, with fingers bleeding against guitar strings and sticks puncturing the skins of tom drums, abandoning the thread that leads back to equilibrium and instrumental authority, the members losing themselves in a whirl of fire and impulse. The track melts into a pool of wounded whining and whimpering, with ride cymbals like eyelids blinking after black-out. Was that all for real? Or was it all part of the show?

Tue May 30 10:20:04 GMT 2017

The Free Jazz Collective 80


By David Menestres

Extremophile is new album from the Dominic Lash Quartet. Their previous album, Opabina, also featured the core group of Lash on bass, Javier Carmona on percussion, and Ricardo Tejero on saxophone and clarinet. For Extremophile the pianist Alexander Hawkins has been replaced by the guitar and clarinet of Alex Ward, providing an additional burst of vitality to the group sound. Ward also recorded, mixed, and mastered Extremophile and it sounds beautiful throughout.

The first track “Puddle Ripple” is a short group improvisation leading straight into one of Lash’s tunes “Mr. S.B.,” which starts as a rather swinging groove tune. An unaccompanied bass solo in the middle of the piece leads to an exciting guitar solo from Ward, joined by the ensemble before a short reprise of the head.

Most of Extremophile is comprised of original tunes or group improvisations, but there are two interesting covers. The first, “Fumeux Fume,” is a rondeau from the late 1300s for three voices composed by the French composer Solage. Today, Solage’s work is mostly known through the “Chantilly Codex,” a collection of one hundred and twelve compositions, many of which are notated in a highly illuminated style, at least ten of which have been attributed to Solage. The medieval polyphony lends itself well to being interpreted by the group. The simple, spare opening of bass, sax, and guitar is soon joined by Carmona’s slowly growing percussion, eventually becoming an assaultive showcase for the percussionist.

The other cover on the album comes at the end, and is the longest track on the album by a good bit. At close to fourteen and a half minutes, “Mixed mixed” is a cover of Cecil Taylor’s “Mixed,” originally released on The Gil Evans album Into the Hot (Impulse! 1962). The Lash Quartet version is slowed down a bit, providing a more meditative and lyrical opening before careening off a cliff down into a wild pit of seething beautiful madness.

Extremophile is an adventurous album that manages to walk the line between improvisation and composition, producing an album with just enough form for your ear to lock unto and just enough freedom to keep your ears and your mind interested. The packaging also has nice artwork by Shea Walsh, worth the few extra dollars for a physical copy over the download.

Extremophile by Dominic Lash Quartet

Sun Apr 30 05:03:00 GMT 2017