4 out of 5

Label: Astral Spirits / Monofonus Press

Produced by: ?

I’m driven a bit crazy by EAVE’s credit list, which always sequences the quartet as Anna Webber, Erik Hove, Vicky Mettler, and Evan Tighe… when clearly Anna should be second in that last to spell things out, but it seems Anna is often credited first as, perhaps, the co-leader, and maybe EAVE is enjoying driving me crazy, I dunno.

This is very loose work, and of a variety I’d think wouldn’t normally do much for me, but credit to however this band is pushing and pulling one another: with Sax, Flute, Guitar and Drums, the ten tracks here never quite break – there’s no release; there’s no sudden coming together; no smiles; no freak outs – but neither are they still, or unfocused. It’s a patient, musical climb up a long, slight hill, our storytellers narrating a winding path tale that’s undeniably interesting, but from which we cannot quite suss out the point.

As EAVE ascends, we warm up: Meriwether is the barest form of the template to follow – really just some feedback and ambient sound. Even this has intention, though, with Anna’s flute barely there to remind us that we are in motion. A comparatively fitful woodwind war follows between Webber and Mettler; Evan Tighe tip-toes across his kit. The exchange then turns to guitar and the horns – a slightly more acerbic side of the issue.

What issue? Dunno. Track titles like ‘Gold Fever’ and ‘Yakima’ – an area in Washington, ‘Owyhee,’ in Idaho – maybe give a sense of a time and place, but that’s the criticism I’ll keep coming back to: while the inscrutable nature of the music is part of its appeal – that it never quite settles into a jazzy cadence, or fully feels improv – you could argue that the recording also comes across as unfinished for the same reasons. The slow uphill climb levels out at various points (such as the wheezing minimalism of mid-album Denver Bob), and it’s truly unclear if we’re starting over on the same journey, or going somewhere new.

But: you keep listening.