live at pioneer works is already the third recorded collaboration between the Detroit-based prolific, underground noise duo Wolf Eyes, who prefer to call themselves a psycho jazz duo, with the prolific, master reed player-composer Anthony Braxton in the last twenty years, following Black Vomit (Victo, 2006) and Difficult Messages Volume Five: Wolf Eyes & Anthony Braxton Live in Los Angeles (Self-Released, 2024). The album was recorded at Brooklyn’s nonprofit cultural arts center Pioneer Works.
Braxton first heard Wolf Eyes at the 2004 edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville and immediately bought all the band’s discs that they were selling that night, and a year later they performed together at the festival and recorded their first live album. The new, untitled album (calling it live at pioneer works, 26 october 2023 is merely a way of helping people distinguish it from their other collaborations and to give it a vintage) has no track titles or even side designations, but one extended, free improvised electroacoustic piece divided into sides A and B.
Braxton on alto, sopranino & bass saxophones, and Wolf Eyes – Nate Young on electronics, vocals, and harmonica, and Johnny Olson on pipes and electronics, already know what each other stands for and their contrasting sonic approaches, but still like to experiment and improvise with each other. The spirit of side A performance leans toward the reserved and introspective pole, despite the sudden explosive bursts. Braxton, again and again, gravitates this improvisation into lyrical and openly emotional territories while Wolf Eyes colors his spontaneous and free-associative, saxes vocalization with subtle yet rich, noisy textures. Side B, with Braxton on the bass saxophone, begins with a wild and intense tone, before Braxton picks again the alto sax and bravely navigates through its intensifying, noisy storms. Both sides – literally – rely on their immediate sonic instincts and this approach guarantees the intuitive playfulness of this performance.
Eyal Hareuveni
Anthony Braxton (alto saxophone, sopranino saxophone, bass saxophones), Johnny Olson (pipes, electronics), Nate Young (electronics, vocals, harmonica)
