Mountainscapes

Longtime American expatriate Barre Phillips, one of the preeminent avant-garde bassists, was one of the most visible sidemen on the European scene throughout the ‘70s and yet during that decade recorded very little as a leader. That’s not for want of ideas or compositional strength, and his classical dexterity and precise tone were extremely in demand. Mountainscapes was only the fourth album to have his name on the jacket and joins him with his mates in the Trio, a cooperative band with reedman John Surman and drummer Stu Martin, as well as electronic artist Dieter Feichtner and, on one track, guitarist John Abercrombie. There are eight sections in the suite, in which the group seamlessly merges jouncing free-bop, rubato dirges, and tense atmospherics — opening the fifth part, for example, with John Carpenter-like synths that somehow either offset or give birth to a caterwauling soprano sax-bass-drums trio. While preceding dates presented solo, duo, and quartet bass (+ drums) music, Mountainscapes is a departure in its use of analog electronics, woodwinds and guitar.