Nels Cline - Consentrik Quartet (2025)

Content to stretch his rock legs in Jeff Tweedy's mightily talented Wilco, Nels Cline maintains a separate musical identity as a jazz-adjacent guitarist. The pandemic sent Cline into rural New York state which he describes as being "enveloped in silence." Armed with grant money from Ars Nova, he immersed himself in writing for his Consentrik Quartet, modelled after the groups of Jimmy Giuffre and the pairing of John Scofield and Joe Lovano. The Consentriks are completed by drummer Tom Rainey, bassist Chris Lightcap, and Rainey's wife, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock. Rainey is best known for the time he has spent playing and recording with saxophonist Tim Berne while Laubrock has built a recorded legacy playing with a wide variety of jazz artists including pianist Craig Taborn, drummer Tyshawn Sorey, and guitarist Mary Halvorson. The quartet, who have played together on and off since meeting at John Zorn's performance space The Stone, swing back and forth between relatively accessible numbers like "The 23"—where Cline rips out a rock-like solo—to bebop-influenced tracks like "Surplus," where sax and guitar often double. The title track begins with solo guitar that leads into a jam where guitar and sax trade solos and play in opposition to each other. Lightcap opens "Question Marks (The Spot)" with a long introductory solo before the quartet bursts out together. Cline breaks out the effects pedals many times along the way, matching the sound of his overdriven guitar with the tone of the tenor saxophone. His use of electronics is most prominent in "House of Steam," a musical space voyage. Built on a drone, the slow, almost ambient opening of "Inner Wall" eventually opens into Laubrock's grand sweeping statements. Laubrock is both a strong foil and sympathetic partner for Cline's fertile imagination, the two raising quite a ruckus together and apart in "Satomi"—a beautiful mix of up and down moods and loud-soft dynamics written in tribute to Satomi Matsuzaki of Deerhoof. The instrumental firepower is impressive and capable of exceptional in-the-moment interplays.

TRACKLIST

1. Nels Cline - The Returning Angel
2. Nels Cline - The 23
3. Nels Cline - Surplus
4. Nels Cline - Slipping Into Something
5. Nels Cline - Allende
6. Nels Cline - House Of Steam
7. Nels Cline - Inner Wall
8. Nels Cline - Satomi
9. Nels Cline - The Bag
10. Nels Cline - Down Close
11. Nels Cline - Question Marks (The Spot)
12. Nels Cline - Time Of No Sirens