Five Years Later

 

Ralph Towner/John Abercrombie
Five Years Later
ECM  CD / LP / download ****
Recorded in March 1981 at Talent in Oslo five years on from the better known Towner-Abercrombie debut Sargasso Sea this reissue is Five Years Later’s first time on CD.
It showcases both the acoustic and electric guitar sides of Abercrombie, the latter also including a 12-string, and he additionally plays mandolin guitar. But it’s not about an arsenal of instruments or grandstanding in the slightest. Towner plays 12-string and classical guitars on this his eleventh album for the label (the next one in the sequence was his solo album Blue Sun again recorded at Talent the following year), and there are eight compositions, a few jointly written, the others individually conceived work by each of the playing partners.

Towner has been quoted by ECM as saying: “With Abercrombie I can play as much as when playing solo and still get to ply my skills as accompanist.” And so these twin aspects coalesce in what is a very detailed album in terms of string textures and the interweaving of improvising lines. And that means it’s absorbing but not necessarily an overbearingly technical album although harmonically very rich and complex where these qualities are required. It’s quite pastoral too, rhapsodic at times, and not loud at all, moving into freer space beyond any limiting notions of swing or tight bop lines. And yet the drama of the playing does involve some dark passages allowing a melancholy beauty to emerge as if from nowhere. For instance you'll find this aspect of the music on the third track ‘Half Past Two’ or at the beginning of the Spanish-sounding ‘Caminata’. Abercrombie’s airy pedal work and accompaniment here on this latter track is pivotal as the performance develops. There’s plenty of jazz-rock too within the prism of the group dynamic and on the long opener ‘Late Night Passenger’ after the four-minute mark there’s a burning Metheny-esque sequence where Abercrombie takes the music out and the pair hurtle forward before retreating to quieter passages.

When two guitarists come together they instinctively jam and while there is an element of this at certain times on Five Years Later the results are so much more involving, whether it’s the surprise of Towner’s buzzy bass notes or the proto-electronica of Abercrombie’s effects. A delight. SG

Ralph Towner performs at the Barbican, London, on 27 February in a double bill with the Brazilian guitarist Egberto Gismonti. Towner's latest album Travel Guide, a three guitarist affair with Towner joined by Wolfgang Muthspiel and Slava Grigoryan, was released in the early autumn of 2013; while Abercrombie's latest album, 39 Steps, is reviewed here.