MICHEL DONEDA · URS LEIMGRUBER · KEITH ROWE — The Difference Between A Fish (2002) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This album (whose title apparently originates in a Scandinavian joke) consists of two extended concert recordings featuring Michel Doneda and Urs Leimgruber on saxophones and Keith Rowe on guitar. Rowe's slow-moving drones define the arch form of "The First Part," while on "The Third Part" he seems to be trying to find out how far he can go into the background without disappearing altogether, with the result that the saxophonists are left more to their own devices. Whereas Leimgruber's origins in wild and woolly free jazz manage to make themselves felt (more so when he plays the tenor), Doneda's soprano playing is quite original (and has moved on considerably since his 1998 Potlatch solo album, Anatomie des Clefs), more bird than Bird. His soaring lines above Rowe's buzzing thunderous rumbles on "The First Part" (recorded 15 months after "The Third Part," incidentally) recall "Le Paradoxe en Long" from his 1992 In Situ masterpiece, Soc (with Dominique Regef and Lê Quan Ninh), and the inspired chirping and cooing that round off the track are close in feel to the open-air recordings Doneda has released on the Ouïe-Dire label. On "The Third Part," the saxophonists seem to be on the verge of exploding into activity, with only Rowe to restrain them. It's more problematic, but no less enthralling. Dan Warburton
Tracklist :
1.    The First Part 25:30
Recorded By – Ansgar Ballhorn
2.    The Third Part  27:56
Producer [Production] – Marita Emigholz
Recorded By – Klaus Schumann, Renate Wolter-Seevers
Credits :
Guitar, Electronics – Keith Rowe
Producer [Radio Bremen Production] – Marita Emigholz
Soprano Saxophone – Michel Doneda
Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Urs Leimgruber