Tonight’s album of choice is named Rebuses, a title that immediately reminds me of word and picture games a certain Mr Olewnick and I used to test each other with over at the JazzCorner website, something we really should do again soon sometime. Otherwise I’m not sure how the title links to the music here, but then I rarely do know these things. The disc is a recent release on the Monotype label from Poland, recorded back in 2004 by the trio of Masahiko Okura, Tetuzi Akiyama and Franz Hautzinger on the occasion of the Austrian’s visit to Tokyo. Of course these things shouldn’t and really don’t matter, but this recording, split into five tracks really sounds like it was recorded in 2004.

Improvised music as we know it is essentially the same thing it was when it first began to take recognisable shape several decades ago, but certainly there are styles of playing that re reminiscent of certain times and places in the music’s history. This CD, which contains an essentially continuous, silence-free musical discussion using mainly small sounds but played, or at least recorded at a hushed volume sounds so much like a recording from Tokyo from the first half of the last decade. I must state right now though that this is by no means a criticism. As a big fan of improv from that city at that time I would say it is quite the opposite in fact, but of course judging music by what time period it seems linked to is a ridiculous way to measure its quality anyway.

Rebuses is, overall a nice listen, but it takes a bit of work to focus on its intricate and yet somewhat unobtrusive little structures. The three musicians take things at a reasonable though not breakneck pace, Hautzinger playing breathy, mostly noteless trumpet, Okura spluttering and whirring at his sax and Akiyama sprinkling little bits of often melodic electric guitar, complete with some tape delay between the two. The music sounds not entirely unlike the skittery so-called insect music played by the likes of the SME in London in the early to mid Eighties, but the low volume and generally muted feel to the sounds keep me from making too strong a comparison. Certainly it takes a good degree of focus and concentration to get the most from the music here though as the interplay between sounds comes quick and fast and as sounds are worked through they are rarely returned to. Spend time with the detail of the recording and it pays you back, but casual listening might just see it drift past without seeming to offer much.

Music of this type often rewards headphone listening, and as it is late here this evening I did give it a go via my Sennheiser HD595 cans, but oh boy this is music that does not work when listened to like this. Immediately everything sounds so much closer, and as the three musicians are split across the recording spectrum (Okura right, Hautzinger left, Akiyama centre) it really sounded like the three musicians were stood a few inches either side of me playing directly into my ear. I didn’t get past the first track that way. So open air playback at low volume served the music best, with proper attention paid. Rebuses is then a decent enough, rewarding listen that may not be re-writing any rulebooks but is a strong demonstration of good musical understanding at work and is well worth the release Monotype have given it. It is also likely to appeal to quite a wide cross-section of improvised music listeners, which should serve it well.

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In other news its great to read a one-pager about Sebastian Lexer in the new issue of The Wire. Really nice to see him get some attention from more established sources. Not sure where they managed to get a photo of him that isn’t just a pic of his backside sticking out of a piano from though.