External Logic Machine (pfMENTUM 066) is the provocative product of the trio collective of Jeff Kaiser (Bb trumpet, quartertone trumpet, flugel), Tom McNalley (acoustic and resonator guitars), and Ted Byrnes (percussion). This is free, abstract fare, with all three players playing top-tier outside music in the contrapuntally dense and noise-encompassing manner of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, to take an example.
They have their own way of going about it and they do it well. Jeff K. plays muted and open horn with inventiveness, occasionally evoking an earlier time in jazz via the cup mute, but mostly contributing his brass sounds to the dense mix. Tom M. plays in a complementary mode with irregular abstractions of notes sometimes sounding like Delta blues off in space (his handling of the resonator must give me that impression in part), other times sounding nicely out and irregular. Ted Byrnes has an appealing all-encompassing junkstra sort of percussion style, with metallic, skin and wood tones setting up a wide spectrum of sound colors that lay out well and give the other two improvisers a carpet to work off of.
There are a few occasions that seem less inspired (though not less intense). Nevertheless this is an excellent set of avant improv overall. All three realize personal voices; together they have a supra-personal sound.
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