Big Tip! Since its founding during the early 1990s as an underground cassette label, the Vienna based imprint, Trost Records, has remained a vehicle for some of the most radical incarnations of avant-garde sound, from their sub-label Cien Fuegos’s deep dives into the historical output of FMP, to contemporary excursions by artists like Okkyung Lee, Jason Adasiewicz, Keiji Haino, Full Blast, Evan Parker, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Sven-Åke Johansson, Mats Gustafsson, and a near countless number of others. Their latest, “Live at SuperDeluxe - Volume 1”, by the all-star quartet of Akira Sakata, Jim O'Rourke, Mette Rasmussen, and Chris Corsano, raises their already high bar and then pushes it up a notch. A blistering blast of rigorous sonority, recorded live at the now defunct, legendary Tokyo venue, SuperDeluxe, documenting the explosive collaboration by four of the most thrilling players working today over two vinyl sides, it’s an absolute mind-melter that can’t be missed.

Being among the most noteworthy and celebrated players in contemporary experimental and improvised music, none of “Live at SuperDeluxe - Volume 1’s” four player need much introduction. Trained as a marine biologist before emerging during the early 1970s as a member of the Yamashita Yosuke Trio, for decades the saxophonist, Akira Sakata, has stood at the forefront of Japanese jazz and improvisation, carving a singular path as a bandleader and collaborator. The Danish, Trondheim, Norway, based saxophonist, Mette Rasmussen, first gained attention as a member of Trio Riot, before increasingly branching out as solo artist, working with the likes of Alan Silva, Chris Corsano, Fire!, Tashi Dorji, Ken Vandermark, Zeena Parkins, and Ryan Sawyer, among others. Initially emerging in Chicago during the late '80s and based in Japan since the mid-2000s, for more than three decades O'Rourke has carved a relentless path through the field of experimental sound, creating a body of work - hundreds of albums deep - that refuses any form of stasis and obligation to genre or idiom. First appearing on the American free improvisation and avant-rock scene during the 1990s, Chris Corsano stands as one of the most distinct and visionary drummer /percussionists, working today, entirely reinventing perceptions of the instrument over a discography that is currently hundreds of albums deep and a relentless practice of live solo and collaborative performance.

As its title suggests, “Live at SuperDeluxe - Volume 1” captures the quartet of Sakata, O'Rourke, Rasmussen, and Corsano live at the Tokyo venue SuperDeluxe. Riding the wire between free jazz and noise, from their earliest sounding the ad hoc group - never before captured on tape - hits the ground running, launching into a furious, high-octane set, as Rasmussen delivers upper register screams on her alto-sax, playing counterpoint to O’Rourke’s unspooling of relentless guitar noise, Sakata’s dancing lyricism, and Corsano’s jerking, textural polyrhythms. As the documented evening develops and progresses, an acute sense of each artist’s longstanding and highly honed practice of attentive listening comes to the forefront through their refined sense of responsiveness to the interventions of the others, as they collectively rise and fall within a writhing sea of creative sonority.

Nothing short of a towering testament to power and socio-political importance of free improvisation - bridging multiple generations, cultural backgrounds, and individual philosophies relating to the act of real-time creativity - “Live at SuperDeluxe - Volume 1” simultaneously reaches toward spiritual and creative heights rarely encountered outside of the live context, capturing some of the finest work we’ve yet to encounter from Rasmussen, O’Rourke, Sakata, and Corsano, respectively, to date. Easily one of our favourite Trost releases in recent years, issued in a beautiful marbled vinyl edition, this one is an exhilarating listen and can’t be missed.