by Skip Jansen This is the British free improvisation guitarist whose activities on the avant-garde music scene span four decades. He has delivered literally hundred of recordings, both solo and in countless collaborations. Standouts in his ample discography would have to be his sessions with percussionists and drummers. His angular chaotic guitar has melded with the work of master free jazz drummers Tony Oxley, John Stevens Han Bennink, and Suzie Ibarra, as well as more avant-garde-inclined percussionists Jamie Muir, Andrea Centazzo, and more. This encounter with Japanese drummer Shoji Hano adds to this chronology and the Tokyo artist's name will be familiar to fans of High Rise, as he was rhythmic force behind the psychedelic underground group. No stranger to free improvisation, though, as he has played with Peter Brotmann and William Parker in this realm and lead the Polybreath Percussion Band in Tokyo. Recorded in London in 2000, the session displays Derek Bailey in excellent electric form, playing up the feedback and noise in an uncommonly fierce fashion, while his partner favors the texture of the drum kit over rhythmic pounding. Deeply concentrated, raw, electric improvisation. Fans of Derek Bailey's work with the Ruins will find much to delight in here, another ad-hoc session from the master who fearlessly treads new territory.