Jazz Quad
KnCurrent – KnCurrent
Leonid Auskern
May, 2025
Fans of mainstream jazz or, say, fusion music, please do not worry: you have come to the wrong door. But those who love free jazz and free improvisational music will have something to savor here. The KnCurrent project is another brainchild of one of the pillars of the New York avant-garde, saxophonist and composer patrick brennan, known for his recordings and performances with s0nic 0penings and Sudani Project (the latter project is associated with collaboration with Moroccan representatives of Gnawi music). For his new project, brennan has assembled a quartet of prominent avant-garde masters. KnCurrent features the alto saxophone of the leader, along with the electric violin of the American-Chinese musician Jason Kao Hwang, well known to our readers, a homemade instrument reminiscent of a fretless banjo called the didley-bo by Cooper-Moore (real name – Gene Jay Ashton), known for his collaboration with William Parker, Daniel Carter and his own projects, as well as the electric guitar of On Kaa Davis, a long-time member of the Sun Ra Arkestra and the septet of Don Ayler, brother of the famous Albert Ayler.
brennan himself explains the origins of KnCurrent in a somewhat intricate way, like the music of his project: “What about where sounds might fly? The ones that can’t be so glibly mapped. Timbre. Texture. Architectures & connections. Serrated vastness. Synchronic twists & turns.” After listening to the album, you will be able to judge for yourself how close patrick’s thoughts are to reality from the seven tracks that make up the KnCurrent program. For my part, I can only confirm the radical nature of this musical experiment. Natural, but often electronically distorted sounds of the violin and guitar, a unique didley-bo sound and sharp, like a sword thrust, alto saxophone parts, together form an extremely bright and unusual palette of sounds. At the same time, the individuality of each of the musicians is very clearly manifested in these improvisational compositions. This unusual music is played by truly great masters, who listen to each other well. In my opinion, the most interesting compositions in the program were must be “Who Say” and micro circus. It is curious that the two final pieces, ṣumūd and tewatatewenní_io, bear names, respectively, in Arabic and in one of the languages of the indigenous inhabitants of America: a kind of tribute to these musical cultures. © & (p) 2025 Deep Dish Music
7 tks / 40 mins
(patrick brennan – as; Cooper-Moore – diddley-bo; Jason Kao Hwang – el.vi; On Ka’a Davis – g;)