This is jazz for those of you like the experimental, free composition, improvisation and the downright weird.

The More Soma trio comprises a saxophone, alternately alto or baritone, double bass and drums; a couple of the players featured on the more tuneful _Unk album we reviewed recently.

This is the debut More Soma album and it’s blissfully tune and melody free. A typical moment has the drums (Frédéric L’Homme, which we think means Fred The Man) rattling away proficiently and the sax (JB Rubin, alto and baritone) tooting over the top. There is bass, too (Mathieu Millet) but it’s the drums and sax that are centre stage.

The music is largely jerky, not actually unpleasant (and the sax is actually quite nice) but not relaxing either, the instruments occasionally slipping into sync with each other, such as at the end of God A. (The tracks are called God A and B and Dog A and B).

On the Press notes, the (French) band say: “We improvise music a bit like playing hide and seek. We try to find each other as we walk away in a tangle of hiccups. The tempo is always slippery, twisted, and the harmony arises where you least expect it. We open the hatches wide and run straight ahead.” So there you go.

Top marks to them for trying something new, but approach with caution. This is out on Circum-Disc, 2021.

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