On Common Ground

Chronique

At age 18, uber-guitarist Mike Sopko moved to Alaska and started studying free jazz. A friend who owned a record store passed this knowledge on to American Splendor creator and jazz-fiend record collector Harvey Pekar, who excitedly sent the guitarist CDs, essays, and other ephemera. Among those titles was 1996's The Last Wave, an improvised trio outing by Arcana (Bill Laswell, guitarist Derek Bailey, and drummer Tony Williams), which made an indelible impression on Sopko. In 2015 he worked with Laswell and Mars Volta drummer Thomas Pridgen, setting a precedent for this release. On Common Ground's press materials reference the rock power trios Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience as referential springboards for improvisational innovation, but that doesn't begin to describe what transpires here. This is due to the revelatory drumming of Tyshawn Sorey, who is also a celebrated composer, pianist, and much-sought-after sideman. The Arcana outing and another inspirational referent from Bailey's catalog, 2000's Mirakle (with bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and drummer G. Calvin Weston), lend meaning here as well.
"The Upward Collapse" commences with the guitarist's razor-wire power chords while Sorey delivers frenetic rolls and crashing cymbals. Laswell pushes the distortion level to 11 on his bass to meet the others in a roiling sonic maelstrom. While it does project rock dynamics, the music is freely improvised in a harmonically multivalent yet unholy squall. Sopko's playing is furious, knotty, and deeply instinctive; he goes at the drummer while feeding Laswell ideas. The band delivers contrast with "Oracle." Laswell is in full dubbed-out bass mode as Sorey offers a hypnotic, circular shuffle. Sopko adds angular chords, sharp vamps, and skittering fills as Laswell employs effects pedals, adding mutant funk to the equation. In spots it recalls (aesthetically) the dark, spacy trance music offered by Robert Fripp on the title cut of Exposure. At 14 minutes, "Incantation" is an in-the-moment composition rendered suite-like by its many phases. A striated ambient entry gives way to a slippery groove asserted by Sorey. Laswell plays a repetitive bass pattern while Sopko shapes fragmented and extrapolated chord voicings underneath. Four minutes in, the snare and guitar delay ratchet up the intensity level. Sopko introduces violent scalar shifts and distortion before erupting into an industrial strength solo, then fades into a dubby backdrop before he re-emerges to shatter the proceedings as Sorey goads him on. On Common Ground juxtaposes riffing with instrumental and sonic abstraction, nocturnal atmospheres, brittle tension, canny improvisation, and explosive moments of jazz-rock formalism. The inspiration Sopko took from Arcana in the 2000s is fully realized in the company of Sorey and Laswell. They function as co-leaders rather than a rhythm section. and offer the guitarist musical glimpses and nuances that evolve into surprising group statements. Together this trio delivers an abundance of creativity driven by massive firepower.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo