Lume – Rachel Musson, Hannah Marshall, Julie Kjaer + Trio Riot – Hundred Crows Rising, Islington, London, 14th November

Julie Kjaer, Hannah Marshall, Rachel Musson

Two trios at tonight’s Lume tackled the trio format with widely differing approaches. Performing first were Rachel Musson (sax), Hannah Marshall, (cello), and Julie Kjaer (sax). They played an improvised set teetering on the edge of the precipice of a noisy canyon; a tight control on their sound kept the full heat they were capable of to a minimum, more effective for its restraint. Individually as well as collectively the playing was brilliant; Musson emits a fiercely hot Pharaoh Sanders-like blare. Kjaer’s contributions are full of audible breaths, sudden pops and quacks. This is post-Coltrane fire-improv cut free from any drummer-imposed structure. The group trade long whale moans and combative sax duo clash. Marshall is the pulse and arteries between the flailing activities of the saxophones. Their set was a dynamic union of artists, breathing and thinking as one.

Mette Rasmussen – Trio Riot

Trio Riot operated in a zone of high energy Ornette Coleman, like a machine gunned ‘Lonely Woman’. A vibrant punkish aggression to some of the pieces lent their set plenty of incident and action; Sam Andreae (sax) and Mette Rasmussen (sax) were often a squall of abrasion, Rasmussen occasionally reaching Colin Stetson levels of feral growl, while David Meier (drums) launched a tight solo in one section, pauses increasing in length until the silence threatened to swallow him whole. Trio Riot are a highly effective mix of screaming improv and curling free jazz riffing; a fiery heat tempered by a Sunny Murray constellation of beats, cool blue stars and rattling bells.