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

EVAN PARKER | KEITH ROWE | BARRY GUY | EDDIE PRÉVOST - Supersession (New Edition) (1984-2015) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Recorded in 1984, a full 16 years after this quartet as individuals began their investigation into free improvisation, the results are in. Here are a group of four nearly peerless musicians who are standalone comfortable in this medium, the one that creates something out of nothing. Using the whatever elements are at their disposal, this group of mates take the silence and fill it with noises, beautiful notes, conical, breathless saxophone solos, electronic chaos, and thunderous, rhythmic densities it would take God to undo. That this music, such as it is as an unfolding process can happen in front of a live audience, as it is with no agenda, is of particular credit to the British musicians who flew in the face of the American free jazz of the late '60s. For one thing, all of these cats can play their instruments well enough to deconstruct them, and to discover new sounds in them -- check Evan Parker's soprano about ten or 11 minutes into this, or Barry Guy's bassing which brings in high-pitched electronic sounds to counter his own pizzicato in key. This is music that doesn't mess around, but goes straight for the heart of the beast: unquestioning conformity, academic avant-gardism, and soulless tunes called art. Now, in the 21st century, this music sounds as fresh as it did the day it was made. That is art. This is the way, so step inside.
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Tracklist :
1     Supersession 36:55
Barry Guy / Evan Parker / Eddie Prévost / Keith Rowe
Double Bass, Electronics – Barry Guy
Guitar, Electronics, Design – Keith Rowe
Percussion, Liner Notes, Design – Eddie Prévost
Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Evan Parker

EVAN PARKER | KEITH ROWE - Dark Rags (2000) FLAC (tracks), lossless

This is not the first time Evan Parker and Keith Rowe have recorded together, but what makes these two lengthy live improvisations so compelling is the seamless and almost uncanny way in which the musicians meld their creative concepts. Rowe is a surprisingly effective partner for the more aggressive Parker, as the former lays down alternatively minimalist and complex layers of electronic fabric that the saxophonist integrates in his blowing. There is always a sense of equal pairing, of smorgasbords of ambient clouds rising up in swirls of interlocking embraces. Curiously, neither of the tracks ever grows tedious, even though both hover at the 40-minute mark, and there is a certain static quality throughout. This is utterly fascinating fare, with Rowe's low-key electronics occasionally adding humor, and Parker adjusting his sometimes frenetic style by lowering the volume and bouncing delicately off the manipulated noises. Somehow, Rowe brings out qualities in the saxophonist's playing that are not usually heard; the results are often thrilling. Steve Loewy
Tracklist :
1    Dark Rags # 1    37:22
2    Dark Rags # 2    40:25
Credits :
Guitar, Electronics, Music By – Keith Rowe
Tenor Saxophone, Music By – Evan Parker