The origins of Anna Webber’s new trio album are certainly unusual: the music composed by the saxophonist/flautist in conditions of some isolation on an island off the coast of her native British Columbia then recorded, by high contrast in terms of the urban surroundings of Brooklyn. Following on from an earlier septet album, Simple was recorded last August and finds Webber keeping some formidable musical company in pianist Matt Mitchell, and drummer John Hollenbeck. Flavoured by fractured, interlocking Anthony Braxton-like saxophone lines, rampant break-out passages on piano shuddered along by scampering drums, there’s certainly plenty going on within the album’s dour but reliably hardy exterior. Music infused with a strong uncompromisingly rugged improvising ethic that in essence never expects or needs to create a sense of resolution, it’s as if there’s unfinished business by the end, and that’s more than OK. SG
Released on 16 September