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Ian Mitchell's record of "cutting edge contemporary works for bass clarinet" represents a crucial release for this repertoire, featuring five world premieres and reminding me in many places of my introduction to the instrument through the recordings of the great John Surman and other luminaries of the ECM label, as well as the formative influences of, say, Marion Brown's sax playing on Harold Budd's beatific Eno-produced Pavilion of Dreams. None of this music is incredibly immediate or particularly easy to listen to but concentration will reward the determined with some revelatory passages. The fact that two pieces feature the sounds of, on the face of it, rather dated Casio keyboards, detracts little from an overall listening experience that compares with the very best that recent intersections of the European jazz, minimalism and improv traditions (ECM, Andriessen, Fitkin, Turnage(?) etc.) has to offer.

Cardew's Bach-inspired Mountains is an immense set of variations which tends to dwarf some of the other music included and can be readily appreciated without necessarily sharing any enthusiasm for (or even knowing about?) its secondary origins in revolutionary political thought (the mountains of the title come from Mao Tse Tung!) However, Christopher Hobbs (who also accompanies Mitchell on the disc), Dave Smith and that incomparable veteran of the British avant-garde, John White, despite much more modest intentions, manage to turn up some gem-like miniatures, in two cases inspired by Mediterranean locations. The last word is left, appropriately enough, to the piece that gives the disc its title. Barney Childs’ Edge of the World proves to be the most jazz related and, unsurprisingly, most left-field work included here, yet emerges as an apt and moving tribute to its late composer. For those who might have some apprehension about purchasing a release like this, rest assured that the (excellent) booklet notes’ references to the aforementioned Bach and to Percy Grainger, alongside jazz great Eric Dolphy, are totally in keeping with the spirit at work here, at one with the great musical traditions while displaying a positive, if iconoclastic, attitude to their transformation and renewal.
Neil Horner

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C. CARDEW
Mountains

C. HOBBS
Seventeen One-Minute Pieces

D. SMITH
Off-Peak Single from Symi

J. WHITE
A Little Souvenir From Costa Mijas

C. HOBBS
Why Not?

B. CHILDS
The Edge of the World



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