Sure, free music is nice (even if it is starting to piss off more lobbyists). But what about free free music. You know like Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come, or Peter Brotzmann (I forgot how make an umlaut on this damn computer)’s Fuck de Boere. I recently acquired this record by the free improvisation group Alterations, called Voila! Enough, and it’s been blowing my mind in small bursts for the past few weeks.
The album is culled from various live performances, but they all flow together ceaselessly…I suppose it’s not that hard when the tracks are mostly super-minimal. While some tracks lend an air of near-empty space, others are awash with so much grinding noise that they teeter on the brink of self-destruction. If you can stand what you’re hearing during the more gruesome passages, you will be rewarded with stretches of beautiful microtonal ambiance. So far, every review I’ve read has included a quote from the liner notes (written by band-member-cum-rock critic David Toops), so I guess I should mention one, too. Toops writes, “The constant clash of idioms and personalities had its dark and vengeful side. In a sense it was like a public x-ray of normal social relations: awkward, clumsy, rude, embarrassing, seething with suppressed and overt anger, tender, sentimental, nostalgic, stereotypical, surprising, supportive, undermining, full of bathos and pathos, usually a good laugh but sometimes really fucking horrible.” The resultant characteristics of their methods are those of a young band struggling to find its identity through chaotic, joyous sonic exploration. Their sound is elusive. Give it a shot.
Alterations – Berlin 1 (15 March, 1981)
Alterations – Berlin 5 (15 March, 1981)
