review Axel DORNER

Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Performance reviewed by John Shand

Improvisation reveals wit and surprises in storm clouds

AXEL DORNER/TONY BUCK, Side On Cafe, February 14

While sharp lines and bright colours still shoot from the bell of Axel Dorner's trumpet, he is at least as much a musical conceptualist as he is an instrumentalist, blurring perceptions and, consequently, definitions.

Dorner comes from Germany, where the forces of jazz, new music and free improvisation have collided and mingled to a greater degree than in most countries. Among his colleagues has been expatriate Australian drummer Tony Buck (of the Necks), with whom he recently recorded an improvised album, Durch Und Durch (distributed by Vitamin Records).
As well as being half of a quartet, these two performed a set as just a duo, which resulted in an extraordinary blend of acoustic and electronic sounds. The former the drums and Dorner's trumpet and slide trumpet were processed by Dorner in real time, using a laptop computer, so a roll on the drums, for instance, could be recycled like a tape loop and/or modified, for both parties to play against. As on the CD, this was music that simmered rather than boiled, sometimes with an ominous potency, like the stormy skies that have hung over Sydney for the past fortnight.

The quartet was completed by saxophonist Andrew Robson and bassist Steve Elphick. Buck and Elphick played together extensively in the 1980s, and Robson and Elphick work together a lot now, so there were various lines of rapport on which to build in realising Dorner's approach.

This consisted of composed sketches linked by improvisations, with the statement of the time often accelerating and slowing over a constant pulse, like an elastic band being tensioned and slackened. Yet beneath the veneer of rampant freedom this was delicate and heartfelt music, even as it leapt between possibilities, seldom settling for long and always surprising.

The versatile slide trumpet could create witty effects, or participate in an eerie, disconcerting trio with soprano saxophone and bowed bass. Buck's deftness and ability to extract a constantly shifting array of textures as opposed to a vocabulary were astonishing, comparable to the sonic breadth of Phil Treloar and Paul Lovens. In addition to constantly varying the implements with which he struck the drums, an assortment of percussion instruments were placed on the drum heads, or used to attack or caress them. Enthralling.

Tony Buck plays with the Necks at the Basement on February 24. Andrew Robson and Steve Elphick play with Ten Part Invention at the Side On Cafe on Saturday.