Detail were an innovative improvising band that played in Scandinavia in the 1980s - originally conceived as the quartet of Norwegian reeds-player Frode Gjerstad, pianist Eivin One Pedersen, South African bassist Johnny Dyani and British drummer John Stevens, but volatility in the lineup only ever resulted in trio recordings. This long-hidden live set (the early deaths of all the other members stopped Gjerstad from even listening to the tapes for years) is from their debut in Oslo in 1982, with Dyani absent. There are just three long pieces, and the music is often lighter and more whimsically delicate than much free-improv of the era. Stevens’ nimbly clapping tom-tom sound ushers in Gjerstad’s flute on the 24-minute opener, eventually challenged by Pedersen’s metallic acoustic-piano chording and then inventively cushioned by his electric-keys surges under some ferocious, banshee-whooping tenor sax. Gjerstad’s plaintive soprano line wheels over First Version as the creative Pedersen trills, jostles, and mimics it, and John Stevens displays the mix of rhythmic intensity and nuanced sound that made him such a rarity. The 17-minute Of Detail develops from bass clarinet murmurs to dramatic contrasts between vinegary soprano-sax rumination and a resourcefully startling piano undertow. Perhaps this is an album for free-jazz hardliners, but it’s a fascinating one.
