Xu Feng

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John Zorn's 'game pieces' are among the most notorious of his already pretty notorious oeuvre, not least because so damn little is known about what they are, how they work or what they mean. Between 1974 and 1992. he composed some 27 of these works, which are in essence, sets of organizational rules to be followed by groups of improvisers under the guidance of a prompter, with the degree to which they pre-or pro-scribe line-ups, structure, mood, and even genre, vary from piece to piece. In terms of how the rules actually work, Zorn has always kept his cards close to his chest, preferring to work with players he knows well and explain the rules to them, as he puts it 'as part of an oral tradition'. The Archival series of Zorn's label Tzadik has already begun re-releasing the now-classic game piece recordings the composer made in the late 70s, but now the label is presenting new interpretations.

Xu Feng, a piece for two guitars, two keyboards and two drums (or for six drummers), was composed in 1985, right after the completion of his most famous game piece, Cobra. The piece was inspired by the films of the eponymous martial arts actress-turned-producer, and Zorn deliberately set out to achieve something of the violence and kinetic energy of her films, giving more precise instructions to the improvisers than in previous pieces. For this recording, he has assembled a sextet well up to the task: guitarists Fred Frith and John Schott; electronics manipulators David Slusser and Chris Brown; and drummers Dave Lombardo and William Winant. I've personally been lucky enough this year to have seen several of these players performing live; Winant's performance with Mr Bungle in London and Zorn, Lombardo and Frith together (with Bill Laswell) in Paris had prepared me for some of the dynamic aggression of this session. But not all. Talk about action-packed! Single-sitting listens to this CD are exhausting, but huge fun. Which isn't to say that this is an undisciplined noise-fest. On the contrary, both the instrumental control of the players and the piece's compositional complexity give the proceedings the feeling of an extremely tight narrative.

Can't wait to hear a six drummer version with Lombardo, Winant, Baron, Baptista, Jim Black and Susie Ibarra!

PS. Fred Frith is sooooo on form at the moment.