Atavistic's fledgling Out Trios series places together musicians in a context where they will hopefully create something vibrant and new on the spot while the tape is running. Sometimes it works, as it does here in the series' first installment with
William Hooker,
Lee Ranaldo, and Roger Miller, and sometimes, as in Out Trios, Vol. 2 with
Jeff Parker,
Michael Zerang, and
Kevin Drumm, it doesn't. Monsoon is one continuous piece of music, nearly 50 minutes in length, with a scope and breadth that offer listeners a bird's eye view of the process of aesthetic creation where all of the best elements of free improvisation can be heard: imagination, inspiration, control, and respect for one's collaborators.
Hooker is clearly the leader of this ensemble and is driven by his fiercely articulate rhythmic palette. His exoticism comes from within and is easily embodied and emboldened by
Ranaldo on guitar and Miller on bass and electronics. "Monsoon" is a labyrinthine work that begins with flow and assimilation and then becomes a free-falling structure of dynamics, texture, color, and uncanny perception and communication between the principals. This music is loaded with emotion; it exists outside the formal constraints of detached theory and paints the landscape with images that are not easily defined, but are readily experienced by listeners. In other words, this is a language of music that has been developed on the spot, and its articulation is so fluid and harmonious -- even in its atonality -- that it can only be regarded as a monolith of elliptical and visceral beauty. ~ Thom Jurek