Jaki Liebezeit and Burnt Friedman / Burnt Friedman and João Pais – Eurydike EP

Nonplace

Burnt Friedman‘s Nonplace label certainly keeps him busy along with all his other engagements, but to celebrate their fiftieth release, he has paired two tracks of his collaboration with João Pais along with two of the tracks from his Jaki Liebezeit sessions which were recorded in 2015 on his famously pared-down kit.

Eurydike is a fantastic release, because Burnt has managed to find two fundamentally fascinating rhythmic artistes for whom the drums were not a means of showboating, but a means of impressing urgent rhythmic intentions onto the listener, breaking them down until your ears are filled with essential percussive information.

Of the two sides, the one featuring Portuguese drummer João Pais has a more tribal insistence to his approach, with his metronomic groove almost having softer edges. His use of bells and cymbals adds further texture which is then added to by Burnt’s subtle and laid-back use of electronics. There is no drama here, just a deep bass line on opener “Out Of Ape” and hypnotic loops of drum patterns through which Burnt weaves his flat, scattered abstractions. His subtlety in being happy to highlight the drumming is great, and it is fascinating as the patterns gradually change or trying to figure out where they intersect.

“Fibres Of P” is longer and has more time to bed in, with the beat sashaying even further into the opener’s territory, but the rhythm is still relentless and the electronics here are more of a slow creep, a wash that rises and falls in intensity but is never overdone. It is long-form hypnosis where the subtle transformations the track undertakes are barely noticeable and the length gradually overwhelms the senses.

It great that Burnt still has these Jaki pieces to filter out to the waiting listeners. On the strength of a second pressing of Jono Podmore‘s book on the life and techniques of the master drummer (to which Friedman was a contributor), these tracks reawaken the thrill of that instantly recognisable style. This side is slightly more hesitant, but the drumming is sublime with the rare use of the cymbals only highlighting more the spare power. Burnt again takes a back seat, happy to subtly embellish opener “Eurydike” and sit back and marvel at the growing complications of the rhythmic progression. You  find yourself trying to picture him in the studio, laying these pieces down, ceaselessly reinventing.

The cymbal sounds that appear towards the end sound close to disintegration which, along with just enough background textural hum and distant depth charges, create ragged vibrancy, a sense of new discovery and distant squalls. “Star Wars” is different enough to make it stand apart from “Eurydike”. There is a slight oriental feel here which, along with the gentle opening, is fresh and progressive, and it almost lopes with a slightly off-kilter energy. In the few fills — if you can even call them that — that Jaki throws in, there is huge variety; but overall this piece is more subdued, a little thoughtful and less demanding.

There is something about Burnt Friedman that manages to coax extraordinary performances from his collaborators, which I guess comes from having done so for so long. These are a delight, not just for lovers of hypnotic groove, but for anyone who can’t resist their toes tapping once a decent beat assails them. There is plenty of that here.

-Mr Olivetti-