Jon Irabagon, John Hegre, Nils Are Drønen ~ Axis ~ 2017
Rune Grammofon RCD 2190.
 
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1 	Berlin 	17:43
2 	Fukuoka 	18:56

Nils Are Drønen: drums
John Hegre: guitar
Jon Irabagon: saxophone

Recorded at N.K. Berlin 11th June 2013 and at New Combo Fukuoka 14th January 2015.

New York-based saxophonist John Irabagon appeared on one of last year's finest albums, Mary Halvorson's Away With You and is a member of the Mostly Other People Do The Killing, whose mischievous note-for-note cover of Kind Of Blue sent up the jazz-as-classical-music brigade by taking their transcription-based approach to its logical conclusion. Axis finds him in fully-improvised mode, cutting it up with guitarist John Herge and drummer Nils Are Drønen of Norwegian noise outfits Der Brief, Public Enema and Jazzkamer. Next to his noisy Nordic brethren, Irabagon is almost the straight guy, his supremely focussed virtuosity contrasting with their wilder approach. As a trio, they make the most of that dynamic, with Irabagon pulling things together when necessary, before throwing it all off the cliff.
On the Berlin cut, Herge makes like a shoegaze Sonny Sharrock, blurring his furious fretboard scrub into a reverb-heavy thrum. As the piece reaches its conclusion, ringing steel drum tones break through the clouds, illuminating the earth.
'Fukuoka' starts on the down-low, with Iragabon's key taps and tongue slaps given minimal shading by Herge and Drønen. The saxophonist slurs and rasps as if he's slightly hungover. After some scratching around he rallies some energy, spitting out mouthfuls of vinegar as Herge stacks up loops of crabby prog riffage over Drønen's fizzing cymbals. The saxophonist attempts to impose order with a strident Coltrane-like theme, before leaping back into the fray with altissimo twitters and rowdy hyucks. Bags of fun. - Stewart Smith, The Quietus