Live at Les Instants Chavirés

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In 1998's Solar Wind collaboration with Lawrence Casserley, developer of unique tools and methods of digital signal processing, peerless improv saxophonist Evan Parker's circular soprano bleats and flitters were electro-acoustically transformed into swarms of scribbled, squeaking polyphonics, elusive banshee timbres, and randomly generated square-wave havoc. Parker repeats that astonishing feat with Joel Ryan on the incendiary "Instant 1," an even more effective coalescence of a technician's electronics and a musician's impromptu acoustics, recorded live to hard disk at Montreuil's Les Instants Chavirés performance space. As Ryan manipulates the space between them according to the colloquial parameters of improvisation, the saxophonist becomes the ghost in the machine. The spectacular December 1997 date sees Casserley effecting more profound digital derangement on the angular scrubbings and scrapings of guitarist Noël Akchoté. Casserley's wrenchingly ruinous DSP bullying suits Akchoté's sloppy, punk-informed reading of Derek Bailey's inimitably refined chops, all but reprimanding the young Frenchman for the arrogance of his awkward apings. "Instant 3," Parker's ménage à trois with Ryan's computer and Casserley's hardware/software interface, begins flirtatiously-with whispers, whistles, and bashful gestures-but escalates into a delirious ritual of bristling, data-generated twitters and brassy mating calls. Both digital improvisers extort collage-like mechanics from Akchoté's rusted frettings, the metallic tableau of "Instant 4" emulating a self-extracting concréte puzzle-cube. Neither Casserley nor Ryan is exactly a household name, but the latter is a force to watch closely. DSP's finest moment yet may be Ryan's drawing of harmonic reflections and skeins of glittering, digitally re-coded derivations from Akchoté's rough string-play on the exquisite, Fennesz-like "Instant 5." Live ends the only way it could, with all four musicians engaged in the astonishing parallelo-grammatical dialogue of "Instant 6." This is the next frontier for spontaneous music ensembles. Out of many squabbling voices one beautiful, contemporary noise; out of chaos, clarity.