With jazz and free improvisation at its core, 577 Records of Brooklyn, NY wields a joyous tenacity in documenting a variety of creative dialogues, with much of it released on vinyl. Such is the case with two UK-based trios; there’s Robert Mitchell, Neil Charles, and Mark Sanders, aka The Flame, with Towards The Flame, Vol. 1, out now on LP, digipak CD, and digital, and there’s Pat Thomas, Chris Sharkey, and Luke Reddin-Williams with Know: Delirium Atom Paths, out June 30, also on LP, digipak CD, and digital. Through similarities of approach the records offer wildly distinct and equally inspiring collective visions.
Along with the number of contributors in each group, a major element these records have in common is their reality as live performances. Know: Delirium Atom Paths is the oldest of the two recordings so it gets covered first. The date was March 10, 2020 at Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, UK, aka the Fusebox Leeds, with the date right at the cusp of COVID bringing everything to a screeching halt.
Know: Delirium Atom Paths is one 44-minute piece (broken into two parts on vinyl, obviously) featuring Pat Thomas on keyboards, Chris Sharkey on guitar, and Luke Reddin-Williams on drums. Notably, Thomas’ keyboard (there might be more than one) is electric. Delivering washes and bursts of sound in the opening moments of “Delirium Atom Paths,” one could even describe Thomas’ instrument as electronic, particularly as it intermingles with Sharkey’s positively effects-laden guitar.
As the performance unwinds the aura of fusion is perceptible, but the sound is spikey, raw and dangerous, in keeping with the style’s pre-smoothed out early days, but there are also stretches that vacate the fusion zone for the realms of fibrous, edgy electronica, and with an non-labored air of the futuristic in the scheme.
Meanwhile, the clatter, bang and thump produced by Reddin-Williams is recognizably the byproduct of a conventional drumkit throughout, which helps to keep the proceedings partially tied to free improv even as it can resonate as if they’re traveling through uncharted corners of the cosmos. Along with numerous sweet tangles, the non-preplanned performance (the first time the three played together, in fact) climbs in intensity as it nears its conclusion.
Towards The Flame, Vol. 1 was recorded on the other side of the pandemic, on February 10, 2022 at Cafe Oto in London, with Robert Mitchell on piano and percussion, Neil Charles on the double bass, and Mark Sanders on drums and percussion. As on Know: Delirium Atom Paths, this is an unplanned free improv excursion and the first time on the bandstand for this lineup, though there have been some prior interactions.
But as Know: Delirium Atom Paths utilizes effects to achieve a fascinating surrealism, Towards The Flame, Vol. 1’s two pieces, “Ignitions” and “Clouds Ablaze” are avant-jazz abstraction personified. On a standard piano, Mitchell tends toward fleet momentum and contemplative tension rather than explosive angularity, though a few cluster bombs do get dropped along the way.
Charles’ bass playing ranges from hovering tones produced by extended techniques to hearty bowing to flutters of creaks and clicks and wiggles to big ol’ meaty plucked thunder, providing weight, buoyancy, and textural range to the fray. And Sanders, who can be considered the veteran of the group, roves around his kit with furious precision and then alternately lays back with subtler accenting. It’s a particular joy to hear Sanders’ expressive attention to the cymbals throughout both pieces.
When the three come together and take flight, e.g. early on in “Ignition,” it’s a thrilling thing to hear. It’s also dandy to catch Mitchell getting a little lyrical late in the track. As mentioned in 577’s promo text, there was sense of hopefulness in breaking free of pandemic restrictions and isolation that seems to have heightened the energy of this set (the first of two that night). The music takes hold and doesn’t let go until the applause hits.
Robert Mitchell, Neil Charles and Mark Sanders (The Flame),
Towards The Flame, Vol. 1
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Pat Thomas, Chris Sharkey and Luke Reddin-Williams,
Know: Delirium Atom Paths
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