(norway, free jazz, free improvisation, rune grammofon) Circulasione Totale Orchestra - Bandwidth (3 cd) - 2009, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

With a group as sonically dense as Circulasione Totale Orchestra (CTO), a single disc can be daunting enough. With Bandwidth, the 25 year-old free-blowing group delivers nearly three hours of relentless collective interplay; three continuous pieces divided into four segments each across three CDs. It's not for the faint-at-heart; even free improv fans may find it a challenge to sit through the entire set, recorded live in Molde, Moers, and Zürich, in one sitting. But there are few groups today who can mine the outer reaches of extended improvisation as CTO can, making this an essential and, in many ways, definitive set.
Starting as a vehicle for saxophonist Frode Gjerstad's experimentation with improvisation within the roadmap of composed sketches, CTO's Norwegian line-up quickly grew to include international collaborators that the intrepid Gjerstad has met over the years. Surely Scandinavia's answer to Chicago's Ken Vandermark in his breadth and prolificacy, the two reedmen have, indeed, intersected, and both regularly enlist drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, another Norwegian heard here alongside South African expat drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo on Bandwidth's first two discs. The international contingent expands with American representation from drummer Hamid Drake on one disc, and cornetist Bobby Bradford on all three. All told, CTO runs a full 12 members, but with a touch of the revolving door policy that's been a fundamental philosophy to CTO since its inception.
CTO's music may be jagged and—on the surface, at least—unrelenting in its intensity, but a variety of trace elements run through it, providing more than just voluminous weight. Bradford waxes blues-like on "Yellow, Bass & Silver Cornet II, Part 4," for example, amidst burbling electronics and fellow American Kevin Norton's vibraphone—an instrument which, with its more delicate, ethereal timbre, might seem out of place here, but which provides yet another differentiating context-setter when it emerges in the mix. Elsewhere, at the start of "Part 3," Norton's pulse provides a starting point for the drummers to create, if only briefly, a definable rhythm. It's also a lull point for the group, where there may still be plenty going on, but with lowered dynamics and actual space to be found, as Bradford once again takes the lead with Gjerstad and fellow reedman Sabir Mateen wailing far in the background. The piece assumes a more electronic direction, with third drummer Morten Johan Olsen working in tandem with electronics wizard Lasse Marhaug and electric guitarist Anders Hana, to create jagged landscapes, bolstered by British bassist Nick Stephens' sawing arco.
With a group of three drummers, two reedmen, one cornetist, a tubaist, two bassists, vibraphone, electric guitar, and assorted electronics, the sonic, polyrhythmic, and melodic possibilities are endless. All this and more is what makes Bandwidth a captivating—albeit challenging—listen that demands as much of its audience as it does the members of Circulasione Totale Orchestra.
John Kelman
Review excerpts
Over nigh-on three hours, the Orchestra passes through myriad dynamic modes and stylistic shifts - sometimes blazing, sometimes simmering; at times explicitly jazz-based, often drawing on freer, less definable sources. On a dry, technical level, Bandwidth is superb - so microscopically precise and detailed you can almost hear spit valves glistening. Far more importantly, it´s a captivating document of a squirmy, protean and inexhaustibly fertile collective that remains constantly engrossing throughout its heroic running time.
Rock-a-Rolla (UK)
Kevin Norton´s spectral vibraphone gives the music a defining shimmer, like watching the aurora on an October night, with some summer warmth still in the ground. Bradford is present again, and pairing cornet with tuba (Børre Mølstad) instead of trombone gives the brass an imaginative tonal and timbral twist. Gjerstad and Sabir Mateen share reed duties, both of them able to make the clarinet sound like a distinct instrument and not a slack double.
The Wire (UK)
CTO's sound could be described as "Bitches Brew goes to Norway", with the raucous, percussive electronics of Lasse Marhaug, Morten Johan Olsen and guitarist Anders Hana replacing the wah-wah guitars and keyboards of the Davis group; in addition, Bobby Bradford's cornet features prominently, his Ornettey clarion interjections often signalling a change in direction. The rhythm section is an extraordinary team, pairing bassists Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Nick Stephens and drummers Louis Moholo-Moholo and Paal Nilssen-Love; on the third disc, Nilssen-Love and Håker Flaten (off touring with Atomic) are replaced by Hamid Drake and electric bassist Per Zanussi, and the rhythms are somewhat more rigid and less free-flowing.
This collection is highly recommended. With performances of this duration each incremental listen highlights something new to the listener's experience, whether it's the clarinet interplay between Gjerstad and the remarkably simpatico Sabir Mateen or their scorching alto/tenor saxophone face-off on the second part of disc 2 leading to a free-for-all, or the way Børre Mølstad's tuba supplements Bradford and the rhythm section on the first disc's opening cut. I doubt I'll run out of enjoyable things to discover in these fine performances.
Paristransatlantic (UK)