In 2020, bassist/composer/guitarist
Antoine Fafard and drummer/percussionist
Gavin Harrison released their first collaboration,
Chemical Reactions, with assistance from frequent
Fafard collaborator/violinist
Jerry Goodman and the
Janá¿ek Philharmonic Orchestra. A collision of prog, vanguard classical, and improvisation, it won global accolades.
Perpetual Mutations, their follow-up, takes their sonic and stylistic blueprints and extends their creative reach with a full band that includes horns, woodwinds, reeds, chamber strings, classical guitar, piano, Rhodes, handpans, and log drums, as well as vibraphones and marimbas. The duo's goal was simply to try out new sonic combinations and compositional extensions without repeating orchestrations from their previous effort. Here, the music engages jazz and fusion more formally, balancing it with ambitious prog and crossover classical.
Opener "Dark Wind" is frenetically driven by
Fafard's crunchy fretless bass and
Harrison's double-time drum kit in syncopation; the horns are set between them and they open the flow for a glorious soprano saxophone solo from
Jean-Pierre Zanella. "Deadpan" is texturally multi-dimensional and features structured interplay between cellos, guitars, bass, and drums. While no arching melody exists, the modes, solos, and cadences meld prog, chamber music, and modern jazz. "Viral Information 101" bears the fruit of
Harrison's experience as music director and sometime-arranger for
King Crimson.
Ally Storch's luxuriant violin engages treated classical guitars, marimbas, vibes, and drums over a layered Rhodes piano, as all the players deliver staggered rhythmic cadences.
Fafard's tight, skittering bass solo meets
Storch in the middle. "Quiescent II" begins as a nearly pastoral meld of prog and abstracted post-bop as Rhodes piano emphasizes
Fafard's growling bassline. The intricate, circular marimba pattern in "Spontaneous Plan" introduces Rhodes and acoustic piano, with bass and staggered horns; the pattern plays a minimalist line that could have been composed by
Steve Reich, as horns explode in a fanfare. "Solus Souls II" is a straight jazz tune played on drums, acoustic piano, and electric bass. The closer, "Safety Meeting," is almost cinematic. It cuts across intense ensemble play, noir-ish drama, and colorful dynamics from the band.
Fafard's guitar solo is juxtaposed nicely against swelling horns before the piano and drums expand the harmony. To be honest, this jam sounds like an outtake from a
Neil Ardley album.
Perpetual Mutations moves past its predecessor with a maximal aesthetic that demands the varied instrumentation and layered percussion throughout. Arguably, it truly sounds as if many of these pieces were built from the rhythm tracks up. This is an excellent addition to the catalogs of both men and provides depth for an argument that the principals should assemble a touring group and bring the music to the world's stages. ~ Thom Jurek
