Relative Pitch Records is making a great case for becoming a favorite label of mine. There are so many great releases covering the best of improvisational and free music that I’ll probably go broke trying to purchase all of them.
It’s fitting to make my first review that of avant-harpist Zeena Parkins, whose work should need no introduction to the initiated, but for those new to her work, she recorded on labels such as John Zorn’s Tzadik Records and No Man’s Land, a German improv label best known to American and British audiences thanks to their distributor, Recommended Records, who did an amazing job promoting so much good music.
Anyway, this album pairs Parkins with alto saxophonist Mette Rasmussen, whose horn dominates this album, and drummer Ryan Sawyer, and the album manages to stay free, but not to the point of chaos. My favorite track of the album, Merlin and the Gleam, threatens to explode, yet manages to hold on to some thread of structure, and is powerful enough to rattle the bones a bit.
A glowing release from a label who will be one to watch for the next decade, I’m sure.
