John Coxon and
Ashley Wales -- aka
Spring Heel Jack -- have been mucking about melding their progressive electronic drum'n'bass experiments with jazz and improvising musicians from the United States and Europe. Two recordings,
Masses and
Amassed, were released in Thirsty Ear's
Blue Series; a third focuses on a live presentation of their ambitious sonic inquiries, where electronic meets organic and blurs the seams to create something entirely different. Performing with
Matthew Shipp playing an electric Fender Rhodes piano, bassist
William Parker, British sax king
Evan Parker, drummer
Han Bennink, and
Spiritualized guitarist and frontman
J. Spaceman,
Coxon and
Wales (himself a classical composer some years ago) have seemingly done the impossible, taking what is made on the spot and treating, warping, spindling, and manipulating it into a creature that may not resemble itself, but does indeed feel like something that lives, breathes, pulses, whispers, bleats, shouts, cries, and whimpers. Something wholly other that is neither jazz nor pure improv nor electronica, this attains the goal of live music itself -- as a thoroughly engaging experience for musicians and audience alike.