Trevor Dunn first gained attention as a founder, with Mike Patton, of Mr. Bungle; he’s since worked with the Nels Cline Singers, John Zorn and Erik Friedlander. In the late 1990s he formed Trio-Convulsant, a guitar, bass and drums trio that crosses the genres of avant jazz and avant rock.
Trio-Convulsant last released an album in 2004 – Sister Phantom Owl Fish – so the follow-up has taken nearly two decades to appear. As on that previous album, the trio features Mary Halvorson on guitar, and Ches Smith on drums. It’s joined here by Folie a Quatre: Carla Kihlstedt (viola, violin), Oscar Noriega (clarinets), Mariel Roberts (cello), and Anna Webber (flutes).
Dunn’s eclecticism defies any easy description. Programmatically, his album was inspired by the Convulsionnaires of Saint-Médard, an 18th-century French Christian sect whose fevered forms of worship involved ecstatic, near-orgiastic displays. Secours Meurtriers opens tentatively with Webber’s flute, followed by a groove apparently in 13/4 – I lost count – that soon turns edgy and violent.
Saint Médard begins as a bluesy stroll, that turns into a free melee, with believers convulsing in communal ecstasy. On the queasy Restore All Things, Dunn’s bass set up a disorienting, out-of-kilter groove against the strings. A haunting interlude climaxes with gibbering strings and flute, and a lurid return to the original groove.
The eventful 1733 opens with arco bass against congas or bongos, building to a furious collective free improvisation; a quieter seesawing passage leads into a violent conclusion. Oscar Noriega’s free and often fierce clarinet is prominent on The Asylum’s Guilt and on Eschatology. The closing Thaumaturge offers a change from the album’s predominantly frenetic mood; starting languorous, it develops a quietly edgy feel. Séances is a complex release, packed with interest and incident.
Discography
Secours Meurtriers; Saint-Médard; Restore All Things; 1733; The Asylum’s Guilt; Eschatology; Thaumaturge (48.13)
Dunn (b); Mary Halvorson (g); Ches Smith (d, pc); Oscar Noriega (cl); Mariel Roberts (clo); Carla Kihlstedt (vln); Anna Webber (f). No recording details.
Pyroclastic CCD 33202
