Collaborations between poet / composer Bo Meson and composer Martin Archer tend to stray into odd places where neither of them would normally venture, and when they meet up normal rules cease to apply.  Quite how the initial idea for this piece, inspired by the odd fact that Matt Damon’s script for the fourth Jason Bourne movie comprised a total of just 288 words, ended up as a metaphysical dialogue between Rasputin and Goethe set to a kind of surrealistic take on a middle-European palm court trio, is frankly anyone’s guess.  Nevertheless, the end result, which gives plenty of room for the wonderful improvising skills of Graham Clark and Maja Bugge on violin and cello respectively, plus interludes from Archer’s creepy clarinets, is another fine example of Meson’s poetic exploration of arcane and obsessive detail.

 

 

The Sheffield music scene in the late 1970s / early 1980s was a heady and creative collision zone where pop groups and avant garde groups shared stages and audiences, a situation everyone involved was very hhappy to be a part of.  Out of that creative ferment came de tian, the brainchild of ex punk bassist Paul Shaft and fired up by his collection of instruments from around the world and a stack of Stockhausen LPs.  Before too long, and after a couple of line up changes, Martin Archer joined the group, bringing with him a background of free jazz and free improvisation.  Gigs were played, but the scene was fast moving and de tian soon upped it's jazz quotient, expanded its line up, and moved on to become the Prime Time inspired jazz-punk pell mellers Bass Tone Trap before anything substantial from the prior group had been committed to vinyl.  Wind forward 30+ plus years to this new recording which finally captures the group in full flight.  It doesn't sound too much like the earlier music, but it does capture the tribal / industrial / free jazz spirit which was in the Sheffield water and air at that time.  A de tian record for current times indeed.