Old Adam on Turtle Island
Dikeman/Hong/Lumley/Warelis
Relative Pitch RPR 1203 (relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/album/old-adam-on-turtle-island)
As intense as it is international, Old Adam on Turtle Island’s two extended tracks showcase the collective skills of four Amsterdam-based players in creating modern layered improvised music. The disc is built around the seemingly inexhaustible ability of American tenor saxophonist John Dikeman to propel note bending screaming smears, split tones and altissimo shrieks with constant ferocity as rolling clips from Polish pianist Marta Warelis alternately decorate or drive the expositions. Korean drummer Sun-Mi Hong’s measured clunks or reverberations underline sequences with beats more felt than heard, while Canadian bassist Aaron Lumley divides his string sweeps between rhythmic continuity and interludes which add to the strident polyphony without upsetting linear motion.
The encounter reaches its apogee on Groove - Choral - Manifest, the second track, which is introduced by Lumley’s multi-string sul ponticello slides and stops. Superseding weighted drum ruffs and tolling keyboard clips, hefty pizzicato sweeps prod Dikeman and Warelis to filet enough discursive keyboard shakes and bellicose overblowing to reveal a moderated horizontal group finale.
With enough solid interludes to allow each musician to depict progressive and reactive skills, the session is also elevated to a definition of creative music sophistication.
