SLAMCD283 Fred Van Hove, Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers & Paul Lytton – Asynchronous

Paul Dunmall‘s playing goes from strength to strength. ‘Asynchronous’ was recorded live at The Europa Jazz Festival, Le Mans in May 2008, and sees Paul in the unmistakable company of longstanding sidemen Paul Rogers and Paul Lytton and the titanic Fred Van Hove on piano.

The abstract artwork of the booklet is from a photo of some colourful graffiti taken by artist Andy Isham on his travels through the canals of central England.

Fred Van Hove: piano
Paul Dunmall: tenor saxophone
Paul Rogers: double bass
Paul Lytton: drums

“Moves begins with Rogers challenging you to bet how low the bass can go. After his exploration of the rich textures of the lower depths the other three wire in for a spiky collective improvisation, combining agility, speed and precision. The title-track opens with an episode of tentative skitterings and scatterings, introducing three-quarters of an hour of intense jostlings, discussions, mutterings, reflections, regroupings, treaties and accommodation, demonstrating why these players are indisputably amongst the foremost great and good of improv.” – Barry Witherden, Jazz Journal

“Asynchronous demonstrates what can be done in the familiar saxophone and rhythm section milieu…the skills displayed are such that fourpart connectivity is never lost, making the date a tribute to both individual talent and group interaction.” – Ken Waxman, The New York City Jazz Record

“A wonderful, inventive, and dare I say soulful festival date from some heavyweight improvisers. Van Hove and Lytton make for a very nice mixup here, contrasting their quirkier energies with the lust and bellow of Dunmall and Rogers. Not to say the latter two are without subtleties, because in fact they’re wonderful in that regard…such wonderful group music, with each player sympathetic, generous, and imaginative.” – Jason Bivins, Cadence

“This was a first time meeting on stage of this particular quartet and it was an astonishing concert. When four master improvisers meet, you can hear them exploring, thinking, reacting and interacting together. Superbly recorded by Jean Marc Fousatt…Paul Rogers’ custom made 7-string bass is well captured and sounds especially amazing here…There is a part where Van Hove is playing angelic harp-like waves on the piano while the rest of the quartet softly levitate around him. Transcendent…Everyone gets a chance to stretch out and shine here. From solos into duos into trios and into the quartet, I was at the edge of my seat for the entire disc. Absolutely stunning!” – Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

“Dunmall’s big, rounded sound and spiralling runs bursting out of a low-key overture, and then engaging in a long, dignified dance with Rogers’s dark bowed chords. Dunmall sometimes builds solos in patterns of brief, squirted sounds a la Evan Parker, but he stays closer to post-Coltrane tonality for more of the time. Meanwhile, Van Hove unleashes glittering streams of notes with a Cecil Tayloresque intensity; his solo on the first track has an orchestral scope. The shorter episode begins as a bass drone pulsating like a didgeridoo, builds to the best full-on free-playing on the album, shifts to a lament-like section, a briefly resurfacing turmoil, and then evaporates into silence. An attentive and responsive quartet of experts in the genre.” – John Fordham, The Guardian

“There are moments of extraordinary beauty and occasional surprise throughout the performance. Everything fits together so well. Anyone can take on a lead role in the melody, rhythm, texture, or colour of any given passage. They all make interesting choices of what to contribute at any given time, whether it’s a contrasting element, a sound that helps blend and thicken the sound, or dropping out entirely and letting others develop the spontaneous composition.” – Ed Hazell, Point of Departure

Recorded and mixed by Jean-Marc Foussat
Produced by John Rottiers
Spontaneous compositions by Van Hove, Dunmall, Rogers, Lytton
Designed by Andy Isham

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