Freedom in Ascension

One of the things that immediately intrigued me about the live experimental work, Mille Bayous, by Isak Goldschneider, Amy Horvey and Jeff Morton was that it is broken up into several distinct tracks, instead of the one long track as usually done with work of this kind. Performed live at Moose Mountain Pottery in Saskatchewan (Canada), Mille Bayous is an improvised work that the liner notes say “references free jazz traditions and mistakes, contemporary/experimental composition, and other modes of improvised and found music to create an actuelle-folk-electroacoustic sound.”

The first two tracks, “Introduction: Creole Rhizome” (mp3) and “Scary Forest” (mp3) , greet the listener with their drones, twisted horns and other effects in a somewhat comforting way. It would be folly to call out any of these musicians for any particular work on Mille Bayous as they all move from instrument to instrument, though I am greatly interested in what is referred to in the liner notes as a magnet-motor guitar. The album moves along peacefully until “Bop Hunters” (mp3) which streatches ones imagination of what music is with its radial saw-like pronouncements.

After several listens to Mille Bayous, one comes away with three artists working in a very jazz-like structure as they walk along their own path, yet working toward one complete thing. Last year, I reviewed Jeff Morton’s work with Kirk McNally, And the Daily Life (Panospria), which was one of my favorite experimental albums of last year. It wouldn’t surprise me that this Morton collaboration will be one of my favorites at the end of this year.