Imaginary Values

Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton - Imaginary Values

* originally posted on October 5, 2006

From the back cover:

Evan Parker - tenor and soprano sax

Barry Guy - double bass and chamber bass

Paul Lytton - drums, cymbals and percussion

Recorded March 22, 1993 at the Red Rose Club, LondonThe pieces are named after the nine theorems in the primary arithmetic of G. Spencer Brown's "Laws of Form".

From All About Jazz: "Here is Lytton's percussion as a coloristic element. His deft splashes emphasize and punctuate the work of Parker and Guy - just as Philly Joe Jones' "Philly lick" added a period to Miles' and Trane's solos in the Fifties. But Lytton has given this art a whole new dimension." [Robert Spencer]

"Tenor and soprano saxophonist Evan Parker's whirlwind circular breathing couples tones in a dizzying array of decenteredness, frayed further by windy echoes of the horn's machinery while he overblows torrents of energy. Parker, bassist Barry Guy, and drummer Paul Lytton share near-telepathic dialogue in this loosely formulated expanse that is at once personalised and left wide open. Guy thumps his bass with such energy that at times he sounds like the drummer, while Lytton bows his drums, assuming the bassist's role, and Parker delivers solos like several saxophonists expanding multiple horns' ranges all at once. Imaginary Values compels as both an idea and a fully visceral sonic experience." [Andrew Bartlett]

Tracklisting:

1. Form {12:15}

2. Content {8:34}

3. Agreement {7:19}

4. Distinction {10:06}

5. Identity {7:28}

6. Value {7:42}

7. Consequence {2:12}

8. Invariance {3:28}

9. Variance {4:14}

(1) or (1) (2) or (2) [maybe reposted soon]