James Allsopp: Stars And Sand
It’s around 20 years now since Allsopp burst onto the scene with the wonderfully squalling free-jazz and electronica mash-ups of his group Fraud, closely followed by his wonderfully idiosyncratic organ trio The Golden Age of Steam. Since then his musical interests have increasingly diversified, involving work with artists as varied as The Last Poets, David Axelrod, Dr John and Mulatu Astatke. This latest project, inspired in no small part by the mystical sounds of Ethio-jazz, sees him joining forces with alto saxophonist Steve Buckley (Loose Tubes), electric bassist Tom Herbert (Polar Bear) and up-and-coming drummer Dave Storey, while producer Ben Lamdin (Nostalgia 77) is effectively the fifth member. Approaching the material with the flair of a dub-master, Lamdin produces mixes with a depth and sophistication that should resonate with contemporary listeners.
The set opens with the Balkan-inflected Yew, the joyously dancing theme propelled relentlessly by Herbert’s Jaco-esque bass. The title track leans more into Astatke’s musical universe, Allsopp’s dark, sinuous solo rooted in Coltrane. The loose, elastic groove of Slinky meets its titular expectations, and this time it’s Buckley who is first into the limelight with a powerful and lyrical statement. Allsopp’s meditative intro to Gravity is shrouded by Lamdin’s ambient squalls, but as the pace picks up the piece moves into a more extrovert mode. The tense but delicately poised Orugoru (Japanese for a music box as well as the title of a cult Yakuza movie by director Mitsuo Kurotsuchi) fuses Eastern flute and clarinet motifs with another hypnotic Ethio-jazz groove. Tincture flirts with a bossa nova beat, a nod perhaps to Allsopp’s early hero Stan Getz, while the interplay between Herbert and Storey during the prog manoeuvres of the closing Red Sky is quite breathtaking.
It’s not really an album that breaks new ground, but the polished musicality, strong melodies and impeccable production values of Stars And Sand make it one of Allsopp’s most accessible and enjoyable outings to date.
Discography
Yew; Stars And Sand; Slinky; Gravity; Oruguru; Tincture; Red Sky (37.06)
Allsopp (ts, bcl) with Steve Buckley (as); Tom Herbert (elb); Dave Storey (d). Livingston Studio, London. No date.
Vibe Collide / Impossible Ark Records IALP 028
Philipp Gropper’s Philm: 2024 & 2025
In many respects saxophonist Philipp Gropper (b. 1978) is Allsopp’s German counterpart. Both began their careers at almost the same time, both share a more than tangential link to Coltrane, and both have a longstanding predilection for complex rhythms and structured improvisation. Studying at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) from 1999 to 2006 under Jerry Granelli and David Friedman, Gropper launched his solo career with an edgy trio featuring guitarist Ronny Graupe and drummer Christian Lillinger (Hyperactive Kid). As well as leading the highly regarded electro-acoustic ensemble Tau he makes occasional forays into the challenging world of solo saxophone, but for much of the last decade his primary vehicle has been the post-bop quartet Philm (fully capitalised in marketing material). The group has recorded five boundary-pushing albums for independent label WhyPlayJazz, and following something of a hiatus they now return with not just one but two albums for Berlin post-punk specialists Bretford.
In a small but significant change of personnel, long-term drummer Oliver Steidle is replaced by the Cologne-based percussionist, composer and sometimes pianist Leif Berger. Much in demand across almost the entire spectrum of contemporary music, he is particularly effective in the maelstrom of beat-driven experimentation of 2024. Recorded live at Zentrifuge, an old Berlin cinema, Gropper describes the album as a search for new rhythmic mantras, the group’s challenge to improvise within structures built on complex multi-layered rhythms. Berger’s staccato attack creates a solid and seemingly impenetrable wall on Run I, Stemseder’s disembodied synth probing all the while for the tiniest of gaps. Landfermann darts in and out of the harmonic structure, creating a healthy air of tension, while the steely Gropper strides imperiously through the middle and solos with impeccable logic. By now the ears are beginning to attune, and the strange circular motions of Part II seem less forbidding. Gropper describes Ray as having “a bouncy 3/4 septol beat, with a 7:2 and 7:3 undercurrent”, and the quartet cycles through several shifts of perspective and attack. The three part High Purple has very a different emotional pitch, this time built on quintuplet layers over quarter and eighth notes acting as rhythmic counterpoint, Berger clearly revelling in the role of chief disrupter. Closing with three pieces based on Jamaican rhythms, time signatures are simultaneously 3/4, 4/4 and 5/4, but the quartet is so deeply immersed in the process that no amount of complexity can seem strange or unnatural.
The second recording is darker and more reflective, Gropper digging deeper into his post-Coltrane roots. What To? poses both a musical and a philosophical question as the quartet search for an exit from a somewhat ailing and predictable groove. For Gropper the piece is also an expression of his wider dissatisfaction with societal conditions, and during 12 superbly controlled but unpredictable minutes the quartet plays as if their lives depended on it. No Words is rooted in a similar sense of alienation, Gropper’s meditative tenor under continuous assault from a tide of rhythmic displacements and harmonic dissonance. Tensions boil over in Part I as Gropper releases a full-throated multiphonic howl, while on the more resolute Part II Stemseder regulates the mood with some smart shifts of emphasis. Gropper’s searching tone recalls the Coltrane of A Love Supreme on the painfully melancholic Eyes / Sorry, while on the closing * (which I sense to be an important asterisk in the margin) the quartet sign off with just the faintest glow of hope.
While neither album can be described as an easy listen, the easy options in life are rarely the most rewarding. Both sets are sufficiently different to stand alone, and struggling to recommend one over the other, I would simply advise grab them both.
Discography
2024
Run I; Run II; Ray; High Purple I; High Purple II; High Purple III; Riddim 345 I; Riddim 345 II; Riddim 345 III (42.21)
Gropper (ts) with Elias Stemseder (p, kyb); Robert Landfermann (b); Leif Berger (d). Zentrifuge, Berlin. August 2024.
Bretford Records BRT011
2025
What To?; No Words I; No Words II; Eyes / Sorry; * (40.29)
Same personnel. Loft, Köln. April 2025.
Bretford Records BRT012
