The trio of Alex von Schlippenbach, saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lovens are nowadays that enemy of free-improv purity: an institution (the three have played together for 45 years). But if they can almost unerringly read each other’s minds, their methods have never hardened into habit, and their work over the decades has immense variety. There are 15 numbered Features here, and they are tautly concise, and often defined by improvised openings by one or other participant that shape their developing character. Feature 1 begins very melodically, developing with logical rigour and ends on a haunting multiphonic sustained tone. Some pieces weave Parker’s nimble mid-range tenor sax lines through percussive backdrops of banging chords and Lovens’ light, scuttling patterns; some are soft and ballad-like. Feature 6 highlights Schlippenbach as a brusque romantic; Feature 8 sounds like jazzy call-and-response; Feature 11 is a tone poem for Parker’s remarkable textural palette. It’s unpremeditated music executed by master craftsmen.
