Air Street

As with this trio's previous release, Monitor, also on the Between the Lines label, this one is a compelling and fascinating ride through the terrain of uncharted free-style chamber jazz. The personnel and instrumentation are the same, too, including Cor Fuhler's performance on the keyolin, which he describes as "a two-string violin on a frame suspended above a small keyboard." Each of the pieces is briefly described by Michael Moore in the CD casing, but the general impression is one of relaxed focus, sometimes building to a moderate intensity, but always bursting with surprises. Part of the fun is the diversity of instruments, with Moore and Fuhler participating on a total of seven different ones between them. The results sound hardly eclectic, though, and there are few of the shifting patterns found in, say, the music of John Zorn. Tristan Honsinger's cello is a major force, his lush and springy strings laying a groundwork for the clarinets and keyolin. In abbreviated liners, Moore describes the effort as part of the "Dutch improvised music tradition," which usually means infused with humor, though there is none (or little) of that here. This represents the more subtle side of the Dutch scene (although, to be sure, Honsinger is an American, even if identified in the public mind as a European), with flowing interaction of the moment, the sort of instant composition that ironically seems seamlessly pre-arranged.