Reuniting for the first time in more than a decade, the Philadelphia favourites and Flying Sutra duo of Robert Cozzolino and George Draguns add Ayumi Shito to the mix as they sail Out Beyond Orbit.
This is Ishito’s third collaboration with Draguns this year following the second volume of Roboquarians – a spiky offering which also features the drummer Kevin Shea and conjures everything from steampunk to the era of mass surveillance, sounding at once ebullient and like a swarm of drones or a seeping and bubbling, satiny black ooze – and a first volume by the all-new quartet Makeshift Spirituals which also features Shea plus the 577 Records mainstay Daniel Carter.
Here on Out Beyond Orbit the wizardry of Ishito’s writhing saxophone splays over the barrelling roll and high bounce of Cozzolino and Draguns on percussion and guitar. Summoning up the Vodou family, ‘Spirit Tax to Erzulie’ has a martial quality which at times sounds like Albert Ayler played through a Leslie speaker while on ‘Calling to the Spirits’ the trio sound celebratory and even exultant as they surge towards a climax.
