«The Sea Is Rough» is only a single (released as a 12’’ EP, played in 45 rpm) that features 2 pieces, recorded by the Russian power-pree jazz outfit Brom (Бром) with Japanese legendary trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, known for his collaborations with innovative improvisers around the globe like Peter Brötzmann, Han Bennink, Henry Kaiser, Bill Laswell and Paal Nilssen-Love. This promising meeting of Brom and Kondo was recorded at Orange Studio, Moscow in March 2019.

The first version of the title-piece is played in a brutal, dirty supersonic manner. Kondo contrasts the punkish, furious approach of Brom with his distinct kind of dense and tense, effect-laden, atmospheric trumpet, soaring to stratospheric skies, way above the possessed playing of Brom’s alto sax player Anton Ponomarev, but Kondo also injects a rare lyrical vein to Brom’s volatile interplay. The second version of the title-piece is introduced by the unworldly sounds of Kondo’s electric trumpet, triggering Brom to experiment in a more abstract yet still dense and energetic framework. But then the heavy, dirty bass playing of Dmitry Lapshin grounds the interplay into a conflictual mode, still, Kondo, again, insists on exploring melodic, lyrical veins even in this kind of tense interplay.

I wish that Brom and Kondo would resume this meeting into something much bigger.

Eyal Hareuveni  

Toshinori Kondo (el.tp), Anton Ponomarev (as), Dmitry Lapshin (b), Yaroslav Kurilo (dr)