Brandon Seabrook's "brutalovechamp"

I first encountered guitarist-banjoist-composer Brandon Seabrook on the self-titled 2009 debut by Seabrook Power Plant -- an unlikely power trio propelled by his madcap speed-metal banjo. More recently, he's been heard from on guitar as part of Tomas Fujiwara's Triple Double, and in a trio with Cooper-Moore and Gerald Cleaver. Last year, I heard him duet with Jen Shyu on acoustic instruments and Harry Bertoia sound sculptures as part of the Nasher Sculpture Center's concert series presented in conjunction with their Bertoia retrospective. While his playing in that context used silence and space more than is his usual wont, his performance retained the powerful physicality for which he's known. (Coincidentally, metal sculptures by John Chamberlain appear in the artwork for Seabrook's new album, providing a visual analog for the music.)

On brutalovechamp, Seabrook's debut as leader for Pyroclastic (out May 26), he helms an octet, Epic Proportions, with unusual instrumentation. Most of the musicians were also part of the sextet Die Trommel Fatale that released a self-titled album in 2017: Nava Dunkelman (percussion/vocals), Marika Hughes (cello), Eivind Opsvik and Henry Fraser (basses), Chuck Bettis (electronics/vocals), John McCowen (clarinets/recorders), and Sam Ospovat (drums/vibraphone/percussion). 

Atypically for Seabrook, most of the eight pieces on brutalovechamp are through-composed, with limited opportunity for improvisation. The title track opens with medieval-sounding recorder and mandolin, before the cello and bass join in on angular contrapuntal themes that recall '70s prog rockers Gentle Giant at their knottiest. The two-part suite "I Want To Be Chlorophylled" builds tension by juxtaposing 12-tone counterpoint -- staccato lines from the guitar and vibes against swirling ones from the clarinet -- with abrasive drones from the bowed strings. After Seabrook's solo, the second half of the piece releases the tension with long tones, chimes, and overtone-laden bowing. 

The mandolin chords that open "The Perils of Self-Betterment" give the tune a demented East European edge, over which McCowen unfolds the tortuously winding melody on contrabass clarinet. "From Lucid to Ludicrous" provides a moody and atmospheric respite, with Bettis' electronics coming to the fore. Bettis vocalizes to introduce and punctuate the freeblow episode "Gutbucket Asylum." The confluence of bowed banjo and tuned percussion that introduces "Libidinal Bouquets" sounds for all the world like mutant gamelan, giving way to a mechanistic theme over which Seabrook solos on banjo with an electronic overlay. The closing "Compassion Montage" features Dunkelman's warped operatic soprano over an enigmatic theme. Like a European film director, Seabrook resists tidy resolution. With brutalovechamp, this titanic improviser announces his arrival as a composer.