Evan Parker / Keith Rowe / Barry Guy / Eddie Prévost - Supersession (Matchless Recordings 1988)

EVAN PARKER / KEITH ROWE / BARRY GUY / EDDIE PRÉVOST
Supersession
Matchless Recordings 1988

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Anyone with reservations about the use of the prefix 'Super' when applied to a recording should throw all their ideas about New Pornographer style supergroups playing power chords and falling horribly short of expectations out of the window. This is the kind of quartet you only wish you'd been around to see when they first got together, sat down, stood up, started throwing ideas around and improvised live in front of a small, but I'm guessing highly appreciative audience back in the 80s. They'd already been doing this kind of thing way before I was born so you'd think that maybe soon, someday they're going to run out of ideas, but each of the musicians on this recording seems to be like an endless spring, forever flowing with music that drenches your expectations in pure bliss.

Like the Gustafsson record, this is one that beautifully crafts space, exploring the silence with a never-ending array of ideas from dissonant noise to hypnotic conical sax solos. The experience of the musicians means that they already know what works and what doesn't, but that doesn't stop them from trying out new things, breaking into a chaotic drum thrashing together with Parker's crystal shattering sax playing, Guy's scraping bass plucking and Rowe's eerie, harsh electronics. In the end it's all part of the artistic process and the way this unfolds means that you can listen on repeat for hours and still fail to understand the complexity behind their playing.