Bill Bruford and Michiel Borstlap
In Two Minds

Summerfold Records BBSF 019CD

Keyboard player Michiel Borstlap and drummer Bill Bruford met at the Nijmegen Festival in Holland in 2002, and have subsequently gigged together as a duo all over Europe, producing a live album, Every Step a Dance, Every Word a Song (Summerfold BBSF 006CD) in 2004.

This album, also recorded live ¨ in Norway, Gateshead and Bath ¨ like the first, contains, in Bruford's words: 'music € improvised without prior discussion as to tonality, tempo, duration or any other extraneous expectation', which is about as neat a description of 'free' jazz as you'll find anywhere; it may surprise those who listen to a lot of the music that goes out under such a rubric, however, to find that Bruford and Borstlap, who, as Bruford notes, simply 'get out of the way and allow the music to develop', produce a fair number of rousing, in-tempo pieces as well as more contemplative, rubato fare (aptly described by Bruford as 'becalmed conversations', 'water colours').

This phenomenon is explained by the fact that ¨ again to quote Bruford himself ¨ 'the music has, of course, been "worked on" for all our working lives € if, as a musician, you want to hear your "inner man" speak, you need at minimum a stage, an audience, good instruments, and no idea what you are going to do next'.

What Bruford and Borstlap do next, and do utterly compellingly and convincingly, is produce what he calls 'performance music' ¨ as opposed to recording 'source material for later manipulation' or 'pre-recorded samples' producing 'computer-based' music ¨ which, as he says, has 'a kind of truth that cannot be denied, expunged or enhanced € [it] resonates with unforced error, human accident, happy coincidence, missed chances, astonishing good luck, hidden intentions, oblique references and the full catalogue of happenstance that is mirrored in all human existence'.

On the aptly titled In Two Minds, Bruford and Borstlap joyously explore this 'sonic sandpit' with wonderfully gripping results; all the material (the rumbustious closer 'All Blues' aside) is spontaneously created. Those wishing to experience this process in the flesh should go to the Purcell Room on 24 November, where the duo are appearing opposite the Portico Quartet as part of the London Jazz Festival. ==================================================

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