SUNKEN FLEET

It seems to me that the older I get (I have been reviewing for the best part of 40 years and am technically a "boomer"), the more I seek out music which defies the norm and is far away from the mainstream. I have long since stop listening to modern "pop" music for pleasure, and while in my thirties did not understand the more extreme forms of metal, now I am in my sixties I seek them out with fervour. Possibly that is why I am so drawn to the releases of eclectic avant prog jazz outfit Anchor and Burden, for whom uncompromising live composition is the path they seek to travel, even though it is far more dangerous, unforgiving and treacherous than the highway.

Markus Reuter (Touch Guitars AU8 and S8, Soundscapes), Alexander Paul Dowerk (Touch Guitars S8), Bernhard Wöstheinrich (Keyboards and Electronics), and Asaf Sirkis (Drums and Percussion) continue to push the boundaries of what is expected in modern music, using dissonance and technique to create something which is incredibly compelling. I must confess I do not know if they have the album title first, and then compose with that in mind, or if they listen back to what has happened in the studio and then come up with the words to describe it, but whichever way around it is, there is no doubt that this release certainly makes one feel as if we are at great depths, our oxygen is running out, and we start to see strange things around us. Is it oxygen deprivation which is causing us to hallucinate, or is it that our heightened senses are seeing a reality which was not previously visible? Who knows, but there is no doubt this is an album which needs to be played in darkness, with no interruptions, when one can feel totally immersed in the threating world being created far below the surface of the sea.

This is possibly their most complete release to date, wonderfully inspiring, dramatic, and showing just what can happen when musicians are totally connected to each other and refuse to play by accepted norms.

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