ASYNCHRONOUS (SLAMCD 283)

Recorded live at Le Mans, this session comprises the 47-minute title track and the relatively brief (15 minute)
Moves, which begins with Rogers challenging you to bed how low the bass can go. After his exploration of the
rich textures of the lower depths the other three wire in for a spiky collective improvisation, combining agility,
speed and precision. The title-track opens with an episode of tentative skitterings and scatterings, introducing
three-quarters of an hour of intense jostlings, discussions, mutterings, reflections, regroupings, treaties and
accommodation, demonstrating why these players are indisputably amongst the foremost great and good of improv.
Barry Witherden Jazz Journal July 2013

Featuring an enviable instance of a so-called
supergroup of improvisers clicking in a festival setting
(the 2008 Europa Jazz Festival in Le Mans, France),
Asynchronous demonstrates what can be done in the
familiar saxophone and rhythm section milieu. It helps
that each participant is a veteran, comfortable in many
improv situations even if this is a one-time-only
meeting. Paul Dunmall, who plays tenor saxophone
and border pipes here, and seven-string bassist Paul
Rogers are one-half of the cooperative British quartet
Mujician, as well as leading their own bands. Antwerpbased
pianist Fred Van Hove has been defining a
Flemish variant of free jazz since before his participation
in 1968’s Machine Gun. And Belgium-based, English born
drummer Paul Lytton is equally adaptable,
having spent four decades collaborating with stylists
ranging from British saxophonist Evan Parker to
American trumpeter Nate Wooley.
Proof of this cooperation is dazzlingly apparent
during the CD’s almost 47-minute title track. Dunmall
spits out pressurized vibrato and split tones with his
considerable body weight behind them while Van
Hove counters with churning chords and equally
kinetic runs. As the saxman’s glissandi become
progressively glottal and atonal, the pianist reaches
inside his instrument to animate the tightly wound
strings with stops, strums and pops.
Rogers’ thick pressure on the bass’ multiple strings
plus Lytton’s skittering drags and rebounds hold the
rhythm, no matter how often the saxophonist’s timbres
move from nephritic to altissimo. With the only
momentary release from the staccato, cascading sound
textures those few instances when Lytton strikes a
small bell with a wire brush, the fortissimo and
polyphonic performance ends as intensely as it began.
Van Hove continues outputting pile-driver chords;
Lytton ruffs and rolls; Rogers’ sul tasto slides and,
nearly engulfing the other tones, Dunmall boosts his
staccato tongue slaps and multiphonic intensity.
Overall, the skills displayed are such that fourpart
connectivity is never lost, making the date a
tribute to both individual talent and group interaction.
Ken Waxman     THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD July 2011 

A wonderful, inventive, and dare I say soulful festival date from some heavyweight improvisers. Van Hove and Lytton make for a very nice mixup here, contrasting their quirkier energies with the lust and bellow of Dunmall and Rogers. Not to say the latter two are without subtleties, because in fact they’re wonderful in that regard. But this is simply to say that they possess a tendency toward, shall we say, the earthen while the pianist and percussionist are more liquid to my ears. Still, it’s not important to fixate on this contrast since this is such wonderful group music, with each player sympathetic, generous, and imaginative. There are precious few of the burly blowouts that can so often constitute coasting in a lengthy festival set like this. There’s motivic pursuit, texture abounding, a regular frisson, but no mindless shifting into high gear. Rather there’s a giving over to the momentum of sound, finding a place in it, and exploring its dimensions from there. They do this from the soft forest sounds that open the long title track—gently clacking percussion, a susurrus through the mouthpiece—through exhilarating passages where Van Hove moves from windchime delicacy to thunder, where Dunmall moves from a throaty holler to what sounds like almost a hint of "Confirmation," music that even at its most spiky and intense never simply floods every available corner of space. It’s fascinating to listen to the meaningful details in Lytton’s and Rogers’ playing too, shaping and building as things flow along, the whole suddenly coalescing as rhapsody in the piece’s closing minutes. The quarter-hour "Moves" is crisp, succinct, and a bit biting. Again, Rogers’ metallic energy is quite compelling, with Lytton contrasting with all kinds of dry sounds. Then the piece arrives at a moment of stunning sympathy, as the group rocks back and forth on a shared interval. Wonderful music. Jason Bivins    Cadence, J – March 2011

One-quarter of the cooperative British quartet Mujician, Dunmall performs in top-form on Asynchronous, a live date with a similarly constituted band. Here Dunmall on tenor saxophonist is joined by Mujician-mate Paul Rogers, with his distinctive 7-string bass, as well as veteran Antwerp-based pianist Fred Van Hove, and English drummer Paul Lytton, a long-time collaborator of saxophonist Evan Parker. Lytton's percussion discussion spread over his kit and various add-ons. is the epitome of European finesse. Although eminently capable of thick pounding when called for, say to counter fiercely accelerating licks from Van Hove, the drummer's usual approach joins rasps, drags, strokes and flaps on a woodblock, unattached cymbals and drum tops, and with a judicious application of shuffle beats and rim shots calms down the fortissimo friction from other players. All this is stunningly apparent during Asynchronous' nearly 47-minute title track. Building on a foundation of thick stopping double bass lines, metronomic chording and swirling cadences from the pianist, plus wood pops and skittering textures from Lytton, Dunmall expels intense split tones with all his body weight behind them. Answered by continuous chording from Van Hove, the two continue to challenge each other in a broken-octave interface. As the saxman pumps out chorus after chorus of widely splayed guttural honks, the pianist moves from using contrasting dynamics on the keys to reaching inside the piano to stop, stroke and otherwise animate the strings. With Lytton maintaining some delicacy by rapping a small bell with a wire brush, Dunmall turns from nephritic pitch spreading to an unaccompanied version of boudoir slurs and tonguing. Establishing symmetry through Rogers' passing thumps and the drummer's flams and rebounds, Dunmall's flashing altissimo runs and Van Hove's kinetic cadences, the four reach a climax in due course. However while there is some tension-release at that point, it's evident that they've paused to regroup. Soon, and until the conclusion, further connective and contrapuntal patterns emerge including pile-driver chording from Van Hove; ruffs and rebounds from Lytton; sul tasto runs and shuffle bowing from Rogers; and – surmounting all other textures – Dunmall spewing unconnected flutters and staccato tongue slaps. Ken Waxman, November 2010 http://www.jazzword.com/review/127247

FRED VAN HOVE/PAUL DUNMALL/PAUL ROGERS/PAUL LYTTON - Asynchronous (Slam 283; UK) Featuring Fred Van Hove on piano, Paul Dunmall on tenor sax, Paul Rogers on bass and Paul Lytton on drums. This was recorded live at the Europa Jazz Festival in Le Mans, France in May of 2008 and it is quite a stellar quartet! There is a short excerpt from this performance in the Paul Dunmall documentary DVD on FMR and it left us wanting more. This was a first time meeting on stage of this particular quartet and it was an astonishing concert. When four master improvisers meet, you can hear them exploring, thinking, reacting and interacting together. Superbly recorded by Jean Marc Fousatt who has worked so well Joelle Leandre in the past. Paul Rogers' custom made 7-string bass is well captured and sounds especially amazing here. This disc contains two long pieces and it is a little over an hour. The title piece is nearly 47 minutes long and evolves organically, from calm to turbulent sections. There is a part where Van Hove is playing angelic harp-like waves on the piano while the rest of the quartet softly levitate around him. Transcendent. Longtime holder of the drum seat in the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, Paul Lytton adds his own quirky rustling percussion sound to this quartet. Everyone gets a chance to stretch out and shine here. From solos into duos into trios and into the quartet, I was at the edge of my seat for the entire disc. Absolutely stunning! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

This is a quartet of 1970s-vintage European free-improvisers – three out offour called Paul – still warming to the task in 2008. Saxist and bass clarinettist Paul Dunmall's model was Evan Parker, while Paul Lytton actually played drums with Parker for years. Bass virtuoso Paul Rogers has spanned the postbop and improv scenes here and in New York, and Belgian pianist and movie composer Fred Van Hove started as a bebopper in the late 50s, then loosened up to spar with German sax free-blaster Peter Brötzmann. All that spontaneous music-making was caught at the Europajazzfestival in Le Mans in May 2008. There are only two tracks: one lasting 46 minutes and one of 15 minutes, with Dunmall's big, rounded sound and spiralling runs bursting out of a low-key overture, andthen engaging in a long, dignified dance with Rogers's dark bowed chords. Dunmall sometimes builds solos in patterns of brief, squirted sounds a la Evan Parker, but he stays closer to post-Coltrane tonality for more of the time. Meanwhile, Van Hove unleashes glittering streams of notes with a Cecil Tayloresque intensity; his solo on the first track has an orchestral scope. The shorter episode begins as a bass drone pulsating like a didgeridoo, builds to the best full-on free-playing on the album, shifts to a lament-like section, abriefly resurfacing turmoil, and then evaporates into silence. An attentive and responsive quartet of experts in the genre.

John Fordham, The Guardian, 9 April 2010

C'est la présence de Fred Van Hove qui interpelle d'abord sur Asynchronous, rencontre du pianiste et d'un trio de Paul qui se connaissent par cœur – Dunmall (saxophone ténor) /Rogers (contrebasse) / Lytton (batterie) – lors de l'édition 2008 de l'Europe Jazz Festival du Mans. Jadis, Van Hove essouffla Peter Brötzmann, Don Cherry ou Albert Mangelsdorff : en conséquence, Dunmall doit faire face et ne tarde pas : ainsi, il titube certes mais tient bon sur les volutes rapides au son desquelles le pianiste investit la première plage d'improvisation, et puis vocifère encore quand le même se fait plus lyrique, décidant d'un changement de climats sous les effets d'aigus remontés. Alors, le saxophoniste trouve refuge dans les graves et commande de nouveaux emportements que soutiennent avec ferveur et même majesté le duo Rogers / Lytton. Bien sûr, on peut regretter la fâcheuse tendance qu'a parfois Van Hove de donner l'impression de jouer tout ce qui lui passe par la tête sans jamais faire usage d'aucun tamis de circonstances, mais la critique s'arrête sur la fin de la première des deux plages à trouver sur le disque. En effet plus subtil sur Moves, le pianiste agit en élément concentré autant que ses partenaires sur un développement musical lent : l'archet appuyé de Rogerset les assauts fomentés ensemble par Dunmall et Lytton l'invitant à distribuer de simples et brefs accords. Cohérent maintenant – c'est-à-dire après avoir déjà beaucoup convaincu – le quartette dépose ses dernières notes, les espaçant de plus en plus jusqu'au moment de disparaître. Guillaume Belhomme © http://www.lesondugrisli.com/

Kwadratuu, Holland

Almost all rebel music originating in the course of time caught up by the mainstream and commercial. Only the free improvisation has lost none of its spicy character, and after about half a century. There has used the musical language that formlessness as the ultimate form postulates, of course everything to do with it. Pianist Fred Van Hove, Antwerp and pioneer in the genre, is now over seventy, but is still very active. Together with fellow veterans Paul Dunmall (tenor saxophone), Paul Rogers (bass) and Paul Lytton (drums) kicked him in 2008 stand at the European Jazz Festival in Le Mans. "Attention concert unique et incontournable!", so this was announced on on the festival poster. The members of this quartet had therefore never played together in this formation, although they knew each other almost thirty years. On the initiative of Paul Rogers, who wanted the recently deceased Paul Rutherford, it became a group event. Rutherford was one of the leading trombonists in the first generation of free improvisation musicians. He was in the sixties and seventies including part of the Globe Unity Orchestra and London Jazz Composers Orchestra, for example, two major bands Dunmall and Lytton were involved. About the repertoire should not be given too much for these old hands created to practice their music site, known as spontaneous composers. An elongated improvisation and an encore of a quarter, got the audience that day at the plate. The violence of this gang from the late sixties kicked in the shins is almost gone. Obviously, this music still seriously confront its spicy character, but the language is much less brutal now. The conspicuous bundles mashed together notes on a piano for example making more and more space for carpets sparkling piano, although still able to cut like a knife. Paul Dunmall shares perhaps most of all from the injections. His short, nasty shocks saxophone make for an especially erratic dynamics. But he is sometimes tempted by a melodious game, which after twenty minutes of improvising a magnificent result. For those who still doubt whether this is really good musicians was a wake-up call for vengeance, because this is a very simple beauty that nobody can deny. It is striking how the group in an organic way let everything evolve. There are no hidden agendas or pushy egos. The accidental harmonies and not the individual ideas of the musicians generate musical ideas. Thus ends a percussive ping-pong game with an accumulation of resonances from an impressive vibration or the harmonics produced by cymbals, by Rogers and Dunmall with the tonal free field concerned. This is not just a collection of thrown together legends, but indeed a supergroup in the best sense of the word. Fred Van Hove especially surprised with broad, ambitious and often colorful parties. Required reading for freaks!

Joachim Ceulemans Kwadratuur http://www.kwadratuur.be/cdbesprekingen/detail/fred_van_hove_paul_dunmall_paul_rogers_paul_lytton_asynchronous/

Translated from the Dutch:

Zowat alle van oorsprong rebelse muziekstijlen zijn in de loop der tijd ingehaald door de mainstream en commercie. Alleen de vrije improvisatie heeft nog niets van zijn pittig karakter verloren, en dat na ongeveer een halve eeuw. Daar heeft de gehanteerde muzikale taal, die vormeloosheid als ultieme vorm vooropstelt, natuurlijk alles mee te maken. Pianist Fred Van Hove, Antwerpenaar en pionier in het genre, is ondertussen de zeventig voorbij maar is nog steeds erg actief. Samen met collega-veteranen Paul Dunmall (tenorsax), Paul Rogers (contrabas) en Paul Lytton (drums) schopte hij in 2008 keet op het Europa Jazz Festival in Le Mans. "Attention concert unique et incontournable !", zo werd dit evenement aangekondigd op de festivalaffiche. De leden van dit kwartet hadden dan ook nog nooit in deze formatie samengespeeld, hoewel ze elkaar zowat dertig jaar kenden. Op initiatief van Paul Rogers, die hiermee de pas overleden Paul Rutherford wilde eren, werd de groep een feit. Rutherford was een van de belangrijkste trombonisten uit de eerste generatie vrije improvisatiemusici. Hij maakte in de jaren zestig en zeventig onder meer deel uit van het Globe Unity Orchestra en het London Jazz Composers Orchestra, twee grote bands waar bijvoorbeeld ook Dunmall en Lytton bij betrokken waren. Over het repertoire moest niet te veel worden nagedacht want deze oude rotten creëerden naar gewoonte hun muziek ter plaatse, als zogenaamde spontaneous composers. Eén langgerekte improvisatie en een toegift van een kwartier, dat kreeg het publiek die dag op het bord. Het geweld waarmee deze bende vanaf eind jaren zestig tegen de schenen schopte is vrijwel verdwenen. Uiteraard kan deze muziek nog steeds ernstig confronteren door haar pittig karakter maar de taal is duidelijk minder bruut geworden. De opvallende bundels bijeen geprakte tonen van de piano bijvoorbeeld maken meer en meer plaats voor sprankelende pianotapijten, die weliswaar nog kunnen snijden als een mes. Paul Dunmall deelt misschien nog het meest van al de prikjes uit. Zijn korte, gemene saxofoonschokken zorgen voornamelijk voor een grillige dynamiek. Maar hij laat zich ook wel eens verleiden tot een melodieus spelletje, wat na twintig minuten improviseren tot een magnifiek resultaat leidt. Voor wie er nog aan twijfelde of dit wel echt goeie musici zijn is het een wake-up call van jewelste, want dit is van een erg eenvoudige schoonheid die niemand kan ontkennen. Het valt op hoe de groep alles op een organische manier laat evolueren. Er zijn geen verborgen agenda’s of opdringerige ego’s. De toevallige samenklanken en niet de individuele ideeën van de musici genereren de muzikale ideeën. Zo mondt een percussief pingpongspelletje via een opeenstapeling van resonanties uit in een indrukwekkende trilling of worden de boventonen geproduceerd door cimbalen, door Rogers en Dunmall mee in het tonaal vrije veld betrokken. Dit is niet zomaar een verzameling bij elkaar gegooide legendes, maar wel degelijk een supergroep in de beste betekenis van het woord. Vooral Fred Van Hove verrast met brede, ambitieuze en vaak zelfs kleurrijke partijen. Verplichte kost voor de freaks!

Asincronicamente di Vittorio LoConte