Patrick Scheyder: Piano Solo II
French pianist Scheyder is in fine company on Leo; the label has released albums by such outstanding ivory-ticklers as Marilyn Crispell, John Wolf Brennan, Cecil Taylor, Steven Lantner and Simon Nabatov, to name a few. Recorded in the nave of the Dominicans in Guebwiller, Piano Solo II is the second hour-long concert Scheyder has given there. While recording these pieces, Scheyder claims to have "heard a continuous song", and the disc is a reflection of this kind of idee fixe. Comprised of thirteen improvisations, it regularly returns to a number of textural and melodic ideas, as if looking at the same objects from different perspectives. Of particular interest is Scheyder's use of treble trills and the resultant pile-up of pungently dissonant seconds. Amidst these shimmering clusters, Scheyder weaves brief and simple melodies, almost folk-like in their construction. Large thumping basso chordal jabs serve as frequent punctuation. The juxtaposition of delicate trills and barbarous pounding creates a curious fabric, but one clearly designed to exploit the acoustical properties Scheyder heard in the nave.

Many of the pieces seem deliberately digressive in character; Scheyder states in the liner notes that he "wanted to preserve the continuity of (the nave's) song, with all of its wanderings and adventures." Others, like the Schoenbergian second piece, "Maestoso", are more rigorously structured. Scheyder likens this journey to spinning a yarn, and while the tale might seem to be epic in its proportions, it is often very engaging.

Joachim Gies: Rilke Anthology I
Poet Rainer Maria Rilke is a favorite of many composers -- heck, there's even a band named after him. Expressive of a wide range of human emotions, often dark, Rilke's poems are ideal when to set to music, but it is no mean task to set them well! Saxophonist Joachim Gies has decided to err on the side of starkness of texture in this album of Rilke settings. He presents eleven songs: a group of five poems from Reflections and six from The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Most of the works consist of Gies playing alto and tenor saxophones, plus mezzo-soprano Ute Doring; Michael Walz also lends some sampling and electronics to the second group of songs, but with a tastefully spare approach. Only in "Part Five" does Walz hit a electronic bass-enhanced groove that seems a little nutso, especially given the gloom that precedes it.

Gies and Doring often duet together in tight, dovetailing counterpoint. By composing for saxophones and mezzo, Gies assures that the intervals between the two voices can remain relatively close. The harmonies evoked here are often reminiscent of Stravinsky's late, post-tonal vocal music -- angular, dry, even acerbic. The austerity of most of the music is a fitting counterpart to the poetry's desolate demeanor. Rilke Anthology I is an example of modern classical music that leans heavily on its 20th Century forebears (the aforementioned Stravinsky, but also at times Schoenberg and even Hindemith) while attempting to create something fresh-sounding.

Wally Shoup: Fusillades & Lamentations
From the opening notes of this album's first track, "The Sacrificial Lion", it is clear that the listener is in for an intense free jazz experience. Bassist Reuben Radding, so poignant on his recent outing with Daniel Carter, literally swoops his bass up and down in an arco (bowed) frenzy. Wally Shoup's alto sax may sound more like an enraged puma than a sacrificial lion, but its raspy snarl, followed by a stratospherically florid solo, is no less welcome for it. Drummer Bob Rees punctuates both of the aforementioned gentlemen's excitations with responsive, percussive statements of his own.

Radding often joins Shoup in the upper register, bowing his way all the way up to the upright bass's glassy treble octave. At other times, he supplies a sepulchral foundation that grounds Shoup's excursions. Rees seems to favor short blasts of action -- fusillades indeed that goad the rest of the trio. And while Shoup can shriek and skronk with the best of them, he also crafts lyrical melodies in his alto's lower and middle register, providing a variety of colors and a broad palette of expression.

While many of Fusillades' cuts are lengthy improvisations on which the trio gets to stretch out and develop ideas -- in addition to the twelve minute "Lion", "Black Tusk", "Lament" and "The Slammer" qualify -- Shoup provides us with a three-minute encapsulation of his art on "CorkSkrewed". This tune is almost a compression or implosion of a longer piece, as Shoup makes sure to get his licks in at lightning speed and breathless (or perhaps circularly breathed) pace. Despite the relatively small ensemble and the consistency of their stylistic approach, Shoup and company craft eight tunes of surprising contrast and variety. Highly recommended.

Slava Ganelin and Esti Kenan Ofri: Birds of Passage
Vyacheslav Ganelin creates quite a mix of sounds on this duo album, using piano, synthesizers, and percussion. I hesitate to use the hackneyed term New Age to describe some of the music here, but moments, like "From a Nest"'s opening, mine the Vangelis/Badalamenti vein -- sumptuous diatonic passages stocked to the brim with triads. However, elsewhere, even later within the same piece, he entertains a much more experimental bent, with noise-like percussion and dissonant, freely atonal linear counterpoint.

His counterpart is Italian-born Israeli vocalist Esti Kenan Ofri. A frequent interpreter of the works of Italian composer Luciano Berio, she lends her considerable capabilities to Birds of Passage's soundscape in the area of extended vocal techniques. Sometimes, however, her vocal contributions more closely resemble folk music -- Karnatic and Arabic traditional music in particular. Ofri does not sing constantly throughout the disc's three works; instead, she metes out her participation carefully. I actually wish that she were present with greater frequency -- not due to any shortcomings in Ganelin's instrumental passages, but because her singing complements them so well.

If this sounds like an eclectic mix, it truly is, more so than nearly anything I have heard this year. If you checked out last month's column, you know that I've been listening to a lot of Heiner Goebbels, so that's really saying something! But this is not diverse music for diversity's sake. It makes an attractive whole out of this musically omnivorous and polyglot environment. Moreover, with its thick synthetic textures, it is not what you would usually expect to hear on a label noted for its jazz, so it is all the more pleasant a surprise.

Leo's records are available directly from their website, www.leorecords.com. They are elusive elsewhere, but if you search, you will find them!

Next Month: We continue our look at Leo. Also, watch for reviews of the latest Leo releases from Mat Maneri, Anthony Braxton and John Wolf Brennan.

-- Christian Carey