Pascal Niggenkemper Vision7, Lucky Prime

Bassist and composer Pascal Niggenkemper has been around a while, but I must confess that other than hearing and appreciating his acoustic bass playing in other ensembles, I have not had the pleasure to hear his own bands. That now is remedied via his recent album with a group he calls Vision7. Lucky Prime (Clean Feed 283) brings together the free playing of a fortuitous combination of players with Pascal's unique compositional vision.

It's a different sort of mix here. Pascal of course is on bass, Frank Gratowski is wielding the bass clarinet and alto sax, Emilie Lesbros sings and recites her texts, Eve Risser plays piano, both conventional and prepared, Frantz Loriot appears on viola, Els Vandeweyer on vibes and marimba, and Christian Lillinger on drums.

The album has new music-free music affiliations and combines free pointillism and rolling-tumbling cascades of collective utterances with pre-composed melody lines, all of which work together to give listeners a fascinating melange of new sounds. The colors gained from the unusual instrumentation and the free/composed elements leave you with an impression of something new and enlivening being developed.

It is a live recording with the kind of concentrated expression such gatherings can inspire. I must say I am impressed with the music--and find that even after five listens it remains quite fresh as well as somewhat enigmatic. I think I will need to listen more to get a strong grasp of what this music is all about. That is a good sign!