Paisiel - Paisiel

Paisiel are Portuguese drummer João Pais Filipe and sax player Julius Gabriel from Germany. This self-titled album is their debut and was originally released last year on cassette via the Lovers & Lollypops label. This re-release is out on Rocket Recordings.

A gong introduces Satellite, followed by strange noises and the sense that the song is approaching across a vast desert. The gong returns but it has been manipulated. An ominous drone grows louder before the drums start, followed by some tentative sax. Gabriel’s playing becomes more fluid as he tries out little runs and melodies. Filipe develops the rhythm and the gathering drone cloud. The sax lines are also being manipulated, like in Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi band (I’m just reading the You’ll Know When You Get There book – a bit dry). The whole track is a total trip – rhythm, atmospherics, noise, and jazz all working together to make something that is more than the sum of its parts. Space noise introduces Limousine In The Desert as Filipe again sets the scene before he lays down another cymbal-less, tribal rhythm and Gabriel starts making his presence felt. His playing on this track is much more unrestrained and, with the effects on his sax, sometimes seems to be sparring with himself. You could call it Free Jazz but Filipe is doing something entirely different to anything Rashied Ali or Billy Higgins did. He’s also making a lot of weird electronic noises that put us in BBC Radiophonic Workshop/Sun Ra territory. The final track of this short (too short) album is Cause Yourself To Rise, Gong. Much shorter than its chums, it dispenses with the atmospherics and gets straight down to business with the tribal drums and Gabriel’s most melodic playing so far. And then, the song and album are both suddenly over, too soon.

It is a strange coincidence that I reviewed this album and The Comet Is Coming album on the same day. They are both Jazz (kind of), but also totally different and both spell-binding. Weirdly, The Comet Is Coming will probably get filed under Jazz whilst Paisiel, because of the Rocket connection, will get filed under Rock. Both bands, however, are pushing for something Other and should be filed as such. Rocket Recordings can always be relied on to deliver the goods from our old chums (Gnod, Hey Colossus, Pigs x 7), but they also excel at taking risks. As Paisiel prove.