Lifeline

Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash and Tony Orrell usually play together as an acoustic trio (piano, double bass and drums, respectively) under the name Bleyschool, but as Lifeline, they confine themselves to exclusively electronic versions of their instruments. As all creative artists know, there’s nothing like self-imposed limitations to unleash the creative juices, and this album is certainly a case in point. The result is less rooted in tradition and (as the track-titles suggest) more abstract than their work as Bleyschool. That took its cue from the work and approach of pianist Paul Bley, which included – as they point out in the notes to their other eponymous album – a desire not to repeat himself. Bley would’ve approved. The music occupies a formal and stylistic no-man’s-land. As the album notes put it, it ‘[balances] form and disform’. It’s fertile, enchanting territory, the music one moment verging on the ruminative and melodic, the next, angular and fragmentary; one moment busy, the next monumental. It’s a hugely imaginative album and one which got me tracing the trio’s roots back, through Bleyschool, to the work of Paul Bley himself. Fascinating to see the different levels of stylistic and formal constraint musicians set for themselves, how one can lead to another and how far the evolution of a music can take it from its starting point. – Dominic Rivron, INTERNATIONAL TIMES https://internationaltimes.it/free-improvised-music-a-beginners-guide/

Here’s a self-titled release that focuses on dense, dissonant, at times maniacally playful improv/ non-music. The CD release takes in six tracks, which shy away from formal structure and shape to create a sort of blunt jam/ haphazard improv vibe.The release appears on Sheffield’s Discus Music- with the CD being presented in a glossy black, red, white, and yellow colour-schemed mini gatefold, taking in abstract shapes & a man working a bicycle-like contraption with his hands.The Lifeline project consists of Pat Thomas- keyboard & electronics, Domnic Lash- electric guitar, and Tony Orrell- electric drums & cymbals. This seems like the project’s first release, though each of the members has been actively releasing work for some years.We open with the darting ‘n’ smarting “Lifeline 1” which is around three minutes shifting, glitching, and baying tone play, which never settles. It starts off the album in a taut & erratic manner. By “Lifeline 2” we find a blend of manic/unharmonic keyboard runs, blunt guitar bay, and rapid/ stabbing patterning.“Lifeline 4” feels like deconstructed/ angular jazz blues- with its trumpeting tone like wonderings, darting guitar twangs, and loose percussive scrapes. While “Lifeline 5” is the longest track here at nearing twelve minutes is a blend of manic synth ice tone stabs, randomly jingling percussion, angular organ runs, and abstract guitar warbles/ bays.In finishing, this is a release for those who enjoyed their improv stripped of all harmony, often very manic, and billowingly with discordant playfulness.  – Roger Batty, Musique Machine https://www.musiquemachine.com/reviews/reviews_template.php?id=11303

Keyboard player Pat Thomas continues to astound with his deeply insightful writing about the impact of African Muslim and Arabic music on the history of jazz and a plethora of projects that transfigure tradition. There are his solos like investigations of Ellington and Monk, freely improvised prepared piano extrapolations, lushly orchestrated electronics, or abstracted Jungle/dub step. There’s his working ensembles like [Ahmed] along with Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal, and Seymour Wright which interpolates the music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik into a single-minded approach to collective deconstruction, Bleyschool with Dominic Lash and Tony Orrell that plumbs the music of Paul Bley, Ellington, Monk, and the trio Shifa شفاء with Rachel Musson and Mark Sanders that mines the tradition of free reed/piano/drums free jazz. And then there are his countless, ongoing collaborations he’s been part of over the last three-plus decades. For an in-depth examination of Thomas’s work, read Bill Shoemaker’s “Page One” column in PoD 69. These two recent releases on the Discus label deliver a new live recording by Shifa شفاء and Lifeline, a reinvention of Bleyschool as an electronic ensemble.

Ecliptic is the third release by Shifa شفاء, a name taken from the Arabic word for healing. Recorded live at Café Oto in London in February 2023, the 46-minute improvisation is a masterful study in spontaneous communication. Ecliptic is defined as “the great circle of the celestial sphere that is the apparent path of the sun among the stars or of the earth as seen from the sun” and that cyclical path is an apt analogy for this set. Starting out with the rustle of inside-piano playing and spattered percussion, Musson enters in with a stabbing motif. Sanders builds tumbling momentum and Thomas introduces hammered, splayed notes from the top of the keyboard and the piece slowly builds from there. The three lock in on sections of trouncing vigor countered by pools of calm with short solo statements by each of the players.

That strategy of elasticity of density and trajectory informs the ensuing improvisation. The trio takes their time building to crescendos of forceful tenor, shattering piano shards, and roiling percussion which they freely release into introspective interaction. Musson’s tenor playing is inspired throughout, drawing on the entire range of her horn, from squalling forceful torrents to probing, labyrinthine, dusky lyricism. Thomas’ acoustic piano playing is dazzling, from thunderous slabs, detailed cascades, pinpoint attack of notes and clusters to timbrally rich inside-piano preparations and plucked strings. Sanders’ sweeping percussive palette moves from shimmering layers of cymbals and abraded surfaces to pinpoint resonating punctuation to fiery, thunderous undercurrents of open pulse. The trio seamlessly navigates their way through all-in collective playing to various duos and solos, from explosive energy to pensive reflection, never once losing their singular focus. This one is another impressive addition to their discography.

Looking at the lineup of Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash, and Tony Orrell one might assume that Lifeline is an expansion of their piano/bass/drums trio Bleyschool. But take a closer look at the instrumentation with Thomas on keyboard and electronics, Lash on electric guitar, and Orrell on electric drums and cymbals and it is quickly apparent that something entirely different is going on here. From the first angular, shredded blasts, Lifeline carves out a strategy that caterwauls along with fervent intensity. While the sonic spectrum they draw from is brash and noisy, their interaction is sharp and detailed throughout. The six improvisations range from three to eleven minutes long, each carving out specific strategies toward group improvisation, building potent layers that are refracted with vigorous conviction and stalwart ingenuity.

Thomas has deep experience using electronics (check out releases like KANZA AL QALB or This Is Trickstep) and the textures, densities, and fractured-beats he fires off meld strapping heft with a keen sense of collaborative synergy. Lash has proven himself as a distinctive guitarist in groups like Trim or his duos with Thomas or Ståle Liavik Solberg. Here, his ringing tones, frayed clusters, or surging, fractured, overdriven lines provide an effective foil for Thomas’ electronics. Orrell’s use of electric drums provides the ideal complement to the group’s palette, providing spiky punctuation and jagged counterpoint to the improvisational arcs. Rarely does one encounter a trio that can balance two projects as diametrically diverse as Bleyschool and Lifeline. One looks forward to hearing where they will continue to push their partnership. – Michael Rosenstein, POINT OF DEPARTURE https://pointofdeparture.org/PoD92/PoD92MoreMoments4.html

LIFELINE, a natural improvisation of raw, reverberant sounds, in clear, dry noise utterances, of emphatic percussion in a excessive, groping collision of sounds of leaping instruments devoid of music, of melodies. A plethora of complex intonations continuing and ending adrift, floating in this 40-minute non-stop electro-acoustic concept. A highly rhythmic sonic art, from them to us, electronic keyboards replacing the acoustic piano, electric guitar with feedback snarls evoking the double bass, acoustic drums substituted by an electric drum kit and electric cymbals. An album imbued with freedom, surprising without ambiguity, where the unexpected appears in the microsecond over serious precise structures skilfully adorned with refinement and fleeting subtleties. (***¾) – Marie MESMER, HIGHLANDS

In a trio situation on Lifeline, Thomas puts aside keyboard textures for oscillating drones and tremolo passages. With Lash and Orrell also plugged in the resultant vibrations and drones permeate the exposition. Meanwhile drum clatters and fizzy e-bow passages add to the advancement, as an outline of a pressurized theme can be heard. Linear consolidation of the narrative moves in and out of the forefront from that point on. But meanwhile spooky organ-like reverberations toughen the underlining continuum, while pointillist motifs in the form of place-marking hand pats from the drums, pinpointed guitar frails and stops ads contrast to the wave forms and animated keyboard clips. By the penultimate “Lifeline 5”, the parameters of the improvisation is established with the ascending exposition becoming faster and more highly amplified. A conveyer belt of purring wave form whooshes meet string stops and place marking percussion smacks. Interjected into the wavering sound structure these blend until in the disc’s final minute movement stops. On his own or with associates Thomas demonstrates his inspiration and individualism on these sessions – Ken Waxman, JAZZ WORD https://www.jazzword.com/reviews/lifeline/

New bottles, same wine? On Lifeline, Pat Thomas, Dominic Lash and Tony Orrell, who operate under the moniker Bley School with acoustic instruments, convene in the studio with electronics. The trio’s defining traits—deep listening, volatility and reflexive interaction—persist, but now unfold through circuitry rather than strings and skins. Furthermore, in place of the covers favored in their parallel incarnation, they dispense with lead sheets and leap into the unknown. As a result agency blurs in sometimes opaque collages of ricocheting beeps, jagged slashes and hi-tech abrasion.

Although primarily known as a jazz and improvising pianist, notably with Ahmed, Thomas has long explored electronics as far back as 1989 on Monads (Reel Estate, 2009) as well as on the Derek Bailey-led Company ’91 (Incus, 1994) recordings. Erstwhile bassist Lash, who works extensively with saxophonist John Butcher, clarinetist-guitarist Alex Ward and pianist Alexander Hawkins, uncases his electric guitar, while Orrell, who frequently accompanies reed man Paul Dunmall, here switches to electric drums. The shift is not cosmetic; it recasts the trio’s conversational method into a more unstable, textural exchange.

The opening “Lifeline 1” stands out for the way the glitchy layers cohere, as one noise seems to answer another in a loosely rhythmic haze. Other high points regularly emerge when the density thins, often at Orrell’s instigation, promoting spare, aerated space which reveals the trio’s inner workings. Conversely on “Lifeline 3” his juiced-up churn gives a noticeable propulsive kick to the digital sparks, while on “Lifeline 5” his bristling energetic clatter catalyzes Thomas’ stabbing percussive patterns. Elsewhere some of the untethered intersections recall Sun Ra’s Moog freak-outs at their most feral.

Only in the closing stretch does Orrell succumb to drum machine tropes, propelling the detonations of off-white noise and android jangle towards the far horizon, proving the truism that anything sounds good over a groove. Paul Bley dabbled with synthesizers in the 1970s. What might happen if this plugged-in line up tackled the Bley School repertoire? – John Sharpe ALL ABOUT JAZZ https://www.allaboutjazz.com/lifeliner-lifeline-discus-music