A Brief Review Of The New Live Album From Chris Corsano, Jim O'Rourke, Mette Rasmussen, & Akira Sakata

Recorded at the legendary venue, Live at SuperDeluxe - Volume 1 finds four extraordinary players engaged in conjuring up fire. The playing here is intuitive and fierce, with each musician taking risks and laying waste to the audio landscape around them. It's big music, and kudos to the quartet for attempting something pitched between free jazz and noise rock.

Saxophone squawks push the first of these two lengthy pieces forward. The dueling horns of Matte Rasmussen and Akira Sakata create a storm that threatens to engulf the whole enterprise. Chris Corsano's drums find a way through the maelstrom, with Jim O'Rourke's guitar being the sort of secret sauce to this epic track. Noisy and confrontational, there's real catharsis in this piece. On the second number, feedback from O'Rourke's axe lights a fuse under the others to start. Corsano's kit-work also gets a turn on this piece, with his approach as fiery as the horn players on this record. Things culminate in an ecstatic patch of noise from all four players, as things descend into chaos and liberation of a sort. The whole record is a document of a performance that finds an equality among the quartet letting four distinct paths of expression bloom and burst forth.

Live at SuperDeluxe - Volume 1 by Chris Corsano, Jim O'Rourke, Mette Rasmussen, and Akira Sakata is out now via Trost Records.

[Photo: Mike Kubeck]