The Antripodean Collective — The Massacre of the egos

The Massacre of the egos is the bringing together of five of Australia’s most respected and versatile jazz musicians for a collection of highly rewarding and varied improvised tracks that go from angular and dense, to playful and pretty, to striped down, barren and a little odd- all weaved in and out with melodic edges and atmospheric bite.

Featured here we have the considerable and highly creative talents of Scott Tinkler on Trumpet, John Rodgers on  Violin , Philip Rex on Double bass, Ken Edie On Drums and lastly but hardly leastly Paul Grabowsky on piano and prepared piano elements. The seven pieces on offer were recorded over a two day period and feature no editing or overdubs. The album starts of quite dense, full and very active- but each player is heard and considered in the improvising that’s often edged with harmonic and atmospheric traits along the way. As the album goes on the tracks start to slow and thin out focusing more one or two themes and vibes compared with the early tracks that jump all over the places- also the improvising shows it less harmonic tendencies become more experimental, jarring and edgy- with bizarre elements like playing trumpet through water been added.

A rich, sometimes dense sometimes stripped down and creative selection of improvised track that are not afraid to have both harmonic and more bizarre/ experimental sides  too. Each player shining on their own but also compliment their fellow players wonderfully