"Astral Plane Crash" features almost 80 full minutes of detailed, colorful and communicative free improvisation by a special quintet of veteran musicians including Vinny Golia (reeds), Ra Kalam Bob Moses (drums), Henry Kaiser (guitar), Damon Smith (bass) and Weasel Walter (drums). The core PLANE CRASH trio of Kaiser, Smith and Walter is a long-running unit, having worked together extensively in numerous contexts on releases like "Plane Crash" (ugEXPLODE, 2009) and "Plane Crash Two" (New Atlantis, 2015). Kaiser was amongst the first wave of 1970's US free improvisers and his diverse, endless discography is legendary. Since 2005, the versatile rhythm section of Smith and Walter has collaborated on almost 25 releases together.
Los Angeles-based workhorse mult-reedist Vinny Golia and mythic journeyman drummer Ra Kalam Bob Moses join the fray here in their first time musical meeting. Golia brings a virtuoso articulation to a wide range of woodwind instruments here, multiplying the timbral variety of the group sound greatly. Those more familiar with Moses as a first rate jazz drummer for icons like Gary Burton, Steve Swallow, Pat Metheny & Dave Leibman may surprised at his current advanced free improvisation concept documented here.
This quintet unleashes an orchestral arsenal of articulated abstraction and explores longer narrative lines, culminating in the two epic forms revealed here. The release comes with a 12 page color booklet featuring the stunning artwork of artist Jordan Belson as a mystical visual counterpart to the sonic mindscapes of the audio.
