Friday, January 27, 2017

Ab Baars / Ingrid Laubrock / Ig Henneman / Tom Rainey - Perch Hen Brock & Rain (RELATIVE PITCH RECORDS 2016)



Perch Hen Brock & Rain is an improvising quartet drawing on myriad experiences and backgrounds; a unique combination of two long-time duos; Ingrid Laubrock and Tom Rainey represent the best of the New York scene while Ab Baars and Ig Henneman are key members of the idiosyncratic Dutch improvised music community. In this ensemble four improvisational artists form a musical collaboration that seems to take on an almost telepathic quality, pulsing with passion, dedication, and versatility.

(…) "Perch Hen Brock & Rain creates a wide textural palette due to the clever deployment of resources, with the tough little string instrument often playing a strikingly aggressive role as a percussive engine that fires away tirelessly while the horns engage in intricate dialogue. True to its name, the group also produces a spectrum of sounds that vividly evokes nature and the animal kingdom, above all in the shrill, stark bird calls of the tenor saxophones and clarinet and the undergrowth rustlings of the drum kit, which Rainey works with consummate dexterity.” 
--Kevin Le Gendre Jazzwise 

Wels Music Unlimited 2014 
"4 master improvisers … in a set full of passion, wisdom, imagination and elegance, the third and last night of Wels Music Unlimited 2014" 
--Eyal Hareuveni Nov 9 2014 

CD 'Live & The Jazz Happening Tampere' 
(...) Reedist and shakuhachi player Ab Baars known from the ICP Orchestra and violist Ig Henneman released the album 'Live @ The Jazz Happening Tampere together with the American label RPR, by which they proof to be at the top of the international impro-scene. 
--Jan Jasper Tamboer, Parool 

(...) The communication between the musicians is almost perfect, they are not treading on each other's toes. The entire album works beautifully as a whole. 
--Jan Granli,e saltpeanuts paanuts.eu 

(...) We can hear the way they converse in a most engaging way, exchanging ideas, lines flowing back and forth throughout. (...)This is a most extraordinary quartet, one of the finest improvising units of the year. We can only hope that this fine quartet will find their way here in the near future. In the meantime, check this dynamite disc!
-- Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG New York

It has become a very beautiful album. 
--Ben Taffijn, draaiomjeoren.be 

(..) The recently released cd 'Live @ The Jazz Happening Tampere’ proofs that stunning music can be created without making any appointments. The interplay between timbre and dynamics is so well balanced that the listener however suspects a composers hand in the whole form. (..) You hear the musicians on the top of their focus. What happens next is a real miracle. 
--Mischa Andriessen, Trouw

1. Perch (14:31)
2. Hen (9:47)
3. Brock (10:34)
4. Rain (13:40)
5. Tampere (4:50)