3 out of 5

Label: Astral Spirits / Monofonus Press

Produced by: David Zuchowski

Astral Spirits / Monofonus Press has a wide sense of scope as a jazz label. The tendency towards impressionistic / abstract cover art and duos or trios who are billed by name and not as a band – like this grouping of Ben Baker Billington, Mark Shippy, and Daniel Wyche – often has me assuming I’m in for something along an axis of traditional jazz, and my first handful of selections from the label bore that out. But as I explored more, I’d hear how that axis was actually multi-dimensional, and that things would stretch to encompass full on ambience, drone, electronic affects, skronk, and more. I wasn’t necessarily surprised, given the jazz-adjacent names that would pop up on some releases, though still, with U.S. Mapler Mark Shippy appearing here, I was taken aback at how outright noisy this album was.

A fellow listener commented how the trio was playing with sound, and not strictly music. Spot on. Again, Astral Spirits supported quite a range of styles, and that includes some pretty busy and loud material, though to my ear, even that stuff is rooted in jazz. Not that this isn’t – throw a free jazz label on there and you’re good – but at the same time, this record could easily fit on a no wave home like Skin Graft, or even get busy on Load Records.

…Okay, it’s not quite as chaotic as some Load stuff, but the spirit is there. That caveat, though, is maybe also what keeps the rating in the middle: despite my atmitted shock at the bluster, our trio show their skill by understanding balance, and relative restraint. Guided by Billington’s percussion, we have (again, relative) rhythm and lead guitars which maintain those roles, leading to music which flexes easily between wild and crazy, while always maintaining a top-down sense of composure. So it’s not free jazz in the way that free jazz often bugs me, by being too unfocused; no one is soloing here, they’re just vibing at max intensity. Which is a gloriously impressive thing! only it also robs the tracks of those ebbing and flowing peaks that can come with free jazz, or composed pieces. So here I sit: attentive, but not exactly immersed.

The first two tracks operate in this realm; track three (Norvin’s Fandled Submersible) is more atmospheric, with a comparatively minimalist beat and curt flashes of guitar burbles for the majority of its runtime. A good juxtaposition against the other tunes, if kind of cementing the lack of immersion by being a bit slow to get to its punctuations.