Beyond Dimensions

This exciting and spontaneously composed album was recorded live in May of 2016 in Romania by a group consisting of Francois Carrier on alto saxophone, Michel Lambert drums, and Rafal Mazur acoustic bass guitar. This trio has been performing together for years, playing with intuition and imagination in many settings. Their performance opens with the massive near half hour long improvisation "Open Dreams," it is a towering free jazz blowout, beginning with a stellar collective improvisation melding the sounds of caustic saxophone, bubbling bass and interweaving drum patterns building a complex and fascinating conversation. "Namagiri" is more subtle, with the acoustic bass guitar prominent creating an interesting sound environment for the performance which Carrier makes the most of building an exotic snake charmer type tone on his alto saxophone, giving the music an unusual spin that is very appealing. This leads into "Unseen" which is aptly named as the musicians focus their improvisations on the gradations of light and shade using brushwork that is deft and quick, allowing the saxophone to flutter around it in a birdlike manner. The bass playing is just epic on this track, developing a really interesting tone and attack that is complex and fits in naturally alongside the growing percussion. The title track, "Beyond Dimensions" wraps things up with another excellent episodic lengthy improvisation that evolves organically over a lengthy period of time. Loud and potent alto saxophone reaches out in an emotionally resonant manner, keeping in constant motion, kneaded by the bass and drums as they wax and wane and engage the saxophone in deeply empathetic interplay. The music can become a firestorm of depth and vigor with acid tongued saxophone and urgent bass guitar meeting skittish percussion. The music opens up to a section of lighter bass and drums stretching into a duet improvisation, the music developing a fluid feeling, and Carrier returning to add warm, melodic comments to the proceedings. The three pull together for the big push to the end where the elastic sounding bass stretches as needed and the drums are supple and agile, leaving the horn room to paint the soundscape in vivid colors demonstrating grace and vision. Beyond Dimensions - Bandcamp

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