RemoteViewers

REMOTE VIEWERS TRIO – NOTES IN A LOST FIELD (CD by Remote Viewers)

Since about 20 years now David Petts (tenor sax) and Adrian Northover (soprano sax) work steadily on a very consistent and high-level corpus, with new records almost every year. They started as a trio, but over years The Remote Viewers had different extended line-ups. Since their last one, however - ‘Last Man in Europe’ (2018) - they returned to the trio format. They continue inthis line-up and even changed their name into Remote Viewers Trio, suggesting this might be a stable unit for the coming times. We will see. Again John Edwards joins on bass as the third member. The CD gives room to 15 short works, most of the compositions by David Petts. Five of them resulted from group improvisation. Like the opening track, ‘You Won’t Hear The Bullets’, thathas the three producing a tight and long extended bundle of noisy sounds. In contrast the second track ‘The Lighthouse’ is a modest work, starting with a delicate intro by Edwards. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I’m pretty sure David Petts doesn’t take part in other musical projects besides his one. He doesn’t leave his musical world very often, what illustrates or partly explains why this music has such a strong individual identity. Surely this is due to the idiosyncratic and strict compositional language of Petts and all dedication that is implied here. Northover however regularly appears in other musical projects. He worked with Pierre Bastien, Steve Noble, Marcello Magliocchi, among others. The title track ‘Notes lost in a Field has them in their most melodic and lyrical shape. Moreover, we find them performing very precise and to the point in the typical constructions delivered by Petts. Compositions, which are adventurous and distinct on one hand and very disciplined and sober on the other hand. As ever Petts refrains from all ornaments and unnecessary gestures. Defining a clear space for inspired improvisations as well. Excellent and inspiring! (DM)

REMOTE VIEWERS TRIO Notes Lost in a Field (The Remote Viewers, RV16): The Londoners have grown to my heart for a good 20 years and through B-Shops For The Poor even longer, in all ramifications: David Petts as a well-groomed suit wearer the blonde features of Edward Fox with The Poison Cabinet or Chrome Yellow. Adrian Northover, dark and lean as Gabriel Byrne, with the Sonicphonics, The Runcible Quintet or TheCustodians Of The Realm. The incredible John Edwards of God and The Honkies on Spring Heel Jack, N.E.W. or Phall Fatale to New Old Luten as the busiest. But it is Petts who makes sure that the notes are not just scattered across the field. Only in five of the fifteen episodes do the three take liberties. Otherwise Petts fixes the tracks of his tenor sax sound, from Northovers Alto and Edwards' double bass on the drawing board. As trajectories of bullets ('You Won't Hear the Bullets', a cynical saying in "The Big Combo", 1955), as aerobatic figures ("Air Show") Think of Faulkner's Barnstromer in "Pylon", not Rammstein 1988. The closest relative of 'The Aspirin Kid' could be Hammett's 'Whosis Kid'. As with "City Of Nets" (2012), "Crimeways" (2013) and "Pitfall" (2014), the 'clairvoyants' suggest titles such as' Border Incident', 'Moscow Twitch', 'Strange Triangle', ' Foreign Intrigue '(the former actually a 1949 film title, the latter from 1946 and 1956), the black and white thrill of Film Noir, and paranoia in the Secret Service. Atmospheres such as in Graham Greene's "Ministry of Fear" or "The Third Man", as in Hitchcock, reflect black and white painting, paranoia, the fatal seductions and manipulations, the apparent and being discrepancies of today. Like the 'Bruised Years' in the title, the music itself has bruises and abrasions from the start, grated by rough tongues, abraded by arches. On the other hand, pithy and shimmering pizzicato and brooding unison of the reeds do not really set other signals, because the signals that are often repeated are cryptic and disturbing. Beat the brass
Caligarische Winkel, Edward's fingers at a brisk pace, but also the sleek plans encounter rough headwinds. Edwards trembles and plocks, the saxophones twitch synchronous moves. Before cautiously optimistic repetitions, a line is whirring
made by the bill. Circles turn with vorticistic serrations and edges, bold waves throw further waves. Two rusty throats crow, squeaking horns dismember melodies that Edwards saws and tugs at. This is how a Morse beat runs
semi-lyrical or in muted concerns, a still smooth motif gets hiccups and creeps thinly. A few minutes are enough for Petts to get involved in a variety of complications, because his strategies are usually sabotaged by an intriguer, who in turn is himself. Consistently continuing what they started at "Last Man in Europe", they put 'Anti-Seed' (in "Mad Max: Fury Road" a word for bullets, bullets that only sow death) against the seeds of their notes. Almost lost. But not quite.
Bad Alchemy[rbd]

The Remote Viewers is a British wind band company around the saxophonists David Petts and Adrian Northover that has been surprising with exciting, adventurous, crystal clear and at the same time melancholic jazz for more than twenty years. On their penultimate album Last Man in Europe the three of them were also tenor saxophonist David Petts, alto saxophonist Adrian Northover and double bass player John Edwards, but this time they call themselves Remote Viewers Trio.
The composition of the Remote Viewers has always changed, because Petts and Northover are always inviting others to play with, but it is striking that the three of them are capable of producing a beautiful, full, lush sound that at least betrays that they have been playing together for years.
Most of the compositions are by Petts, although there are also a few trio improvisations.
The music varies from exciting big city music like The Aspirin Kid to nicely subdued cozy pieces such as Big Rug or the closing track, the title track Notes Lost in a Field. All recorded in two days, mixed and mapped by John Edwards, and the case was designed by Adrian Northover. Energetic, exciting, adventurous, beautiful music with a lot to discover. So listen often.
www.moorsmagazine.com

After release one of last years Avant jazz highlights the excellent CD album The Last Man in Europe, London project The Remote Viewers(here as a trio) return once again with their distinctive blend of angular and often noir atmosphere focused jazz. Notes Lost in A field is fifteen track CD album which finds the project at it’s most fiery, noisy, angular and awkward. And once again it's another extremely worthy venture from the project, who really need way more exposure than they get.As with most of this projects fairly prolific discography, this new CD album is self-released. The CD’s presented in a simple-yet-effective mini gatefold sleeve, and on its front, we get a picture of the three player’s instruments in shadow.
For this release, the players are band leader/ key songwriter David Petts on Tenor Sax, Adrian Northover on Alto Sax, and John Edwards on acoustic bass. So the sound is intimate, but also very searing and snarling. For the most part, the tracks are focusing on the projects more jarring and sinisterly off-kilter sound- all making for an effective release that remains nicely tight, taut and angular through-out…with later on in proceedings a more darkly moody edge coming into play.
Things kick off in great sneering & snarling fashion with “You won't Hear The Bullets”- this just under four-minute track finds a claustrophobic mesh of baying and granting horn work stretched out into a gloomy-yet- seared fug of sound. Track number three “The Aspirin Kid” is a galloping- through- lopsided mix of tight bass pads and darts, which are blended with jarring yet urgent sax that just hints at a brooding noir melody. “Enemy Traffic” is all squealing & slicing horn work, against an almost brutal blend of slap bass & wondering saw. It’s only by the final track, the just over two-minute title track- that the trio slip into a more considered and decidedly moody pace- which finds Edwards bass padding out a bobbing lead line, to which the twin horns smokily waver and slide out the tracks darkly seductive melody line.
With Notes Lost In A Field Petts and his cohorts have once again shown that they one of the most urgent, often jagged, and distinctive players in the Avant jazz scene at present. So please if you do enjoy the more seared, angular, and jarring side of Jazz you really need to do your self a favor and check this album out- to buy direct and find more about this project head here.

I wasn’t reporting on The Remote Viewers since 2015, though their uniqueness resonates quite clearly in this writer’s awareness. With each release, the creature of David Petts and Adrian Northover – here on tenor and alto sax, respectively – is capable of renewing its acoustic intelligence simply by the application of rational rules (besides the unmistakable technical dexterity) to alluring integrations of notated materials and extemporaneous sketching. John Edwards, whose double bass has been a cornerstone of the ensemble’s sound for a long time, belongs to the Remote Viewers Trio as an essential member, the juxtaposition of a stringed contrapuntal voice with the quivering of the reeds informing the mingling of textures in decisive fashion.
Fifteen tracks – the majority penned by Petts, the remaining ones improvisations – reassert the musicians’ severe lucidity (occasionally bordering on cynical coldness) in approaching our auditory organization for the consequent stimulation of a distinct aesthetic consciousness. The recording studio was the obvious consequence of an extended period of live rehearsal; in fact, there does not seem to be a pitch out of place, not even where the music walks out of the reiterative grids and atonal patterns characterizing sizeable chunks of the project’s output. Petts, Northover and Edwards masterfully control timbral grains, parallelisms, intersections, placement of pauses and overall dynamic balance inside a wholeness brimming with sharp-cornered melodic lines. Intervals ranging from “extremely close” to “antipodal” assimilate a restricted nucleus of instrumentalists looking for an evolved fusion of modern jazz bits to a contemporary chamber ensemble more often than not.
As it frequently happens with these gentlemen, the record is probably not going to be learnt by heart. Still, the artistic substance emerging from a potential impenetrability is, as ever, a highly appreciated gift. Skewed themes and weird clusters work wonders, sometimes.

www.touchingextremes.wordpress.com

Notes Lost In A Field • CD self-production • For this release for David Petts's Remote Viewers, the real novelty is that there are no novelties, for a group that had hundreds of changes of personel (almost to each disc), this time the three-word formula is confirmed (hence the slight modification of the company name) in which Pett’s saxophone is flanked by Adrian Northover and John Edwards double bass. A dense and very eclectic album, with pieces of very variable duration (from one minute to over seven), "Notes Lost In A Field" shows how much it is possible to vary with such minimal instrumentation (it must be said that there are no beats or electronic trappings of any kind to support the sound, which is therefore exclusively acoustic). Among numbers that border on free jazz, hypnotic suites and other single episodes, those that convince the most show distorted melodies on enveloping iterative bases: Anti-Seed, Moscow Twitch, Strange Triangle. (7) Bizarre

[The Remote Viewers] appearing today in a two-saxophone line-up, with one contrabass.
With this ‘Notes Lost in a Field’ the trio, in my opinion, attains a maturity that allows them to vary their functional principles while still continuing to inscribe their work within a format of short and composed pieces (mainly by David Petts), whose initial work does not lack in humour, but still allows a certain vivacity of execution. Around the double bassist, who plays arco unisons with the other two or sets them off with his pizzicato, the two saxophonists deploy a great variety of combinations, with sounds that alternate or overlap, attempting to outdo each other, using an extended vocabulary and scansions that are sometimes Monk-like, marvellously playing the curves, the stridencies, and the alloys of these novel timbres.

Notes Lost in a Field
Remote Viewers, 2019, 49:26
The Remote Viewers have always been composed of saxophonists David Petts, who is also the author the vast majority of the repertoire, and Adrian Northover. At first they played as a saxophone trio (first with Louise Petts, later with Caroline Kraabel), subsequently, the saxophone section was strengthened by Sue Lynch - that's how they introduced themselves in the quartet at Alternative 2012, where bass and drum the party sounded like a sample. In most studios however, other musicians also took part in the work,most often bassist John Edwards. And that's right for the second time third to the college in the reduced line-up, which also appeared on the penultimate Last Man In Europe album from 2018. First released under the Remote Viewers label Notes Lost in a Field is the previous one and to some extent similar. Among the fifteen tracks is a third of the common improvisations from the introductoryYou Won’t Hear the Bullets through the nervous miniatures of the Air Show and Border Incident up to Brundibar and traffic collapse evoking Enemy Traffic and a secretive fragmented Foreign Intrigue. The compositions then sometimes really resemble note pads such as Aspirin Kid with chopped saxophones reminiscent of creation RV from a period inspired by lmem noir or geometric game Strange Triangle. We will find however, there are also larger masterpieces such as need e Lighthouse with typically Pettsian layered saxophone parties and gradual complicated bass solo that enhances the atmosphere reminiscent of lonely with a towering lighthouse and flashes of its lights. Moscow Twitch begins as an etude, but then develops into an extremely interesting rich structure and in the Big Rug the bass swings great and the saxophones they are wonderfully capricious. Abstract intro full Strange Sound has Barely Heard Stories where then through the conciliatory bass we get to astral positions. Again, the typical layering we also find in the penultimate Anti-Seed, where saxophones subsequently it howls and tenderly and sometimes sounds even like steamships. And it all ends wonderfully melodic nostalgia in the form of the title track.
Petr Slabý

From the beginning of the album, the sound here is rough: from the bass and from the saxophones, both tenor and alto. This roughness is almost a provocation. The Remote Viewers have been reduced down to a trio, but what power emerges from these three musicians!
I still remember listening to them on the British Improvised scene I would continually listen to the original tapes of this, in which the insistent repetitiveness dominated, as did the insistence on a theme moulded to the will, in a certain posture that led to doubts about the improvising potential of the group. Here the group sticks to basics but goes the whole way. Fifteen pieces, all rather short (the whole album is no longer than 50 minutes), all produced carefully and with finesse, even the first piece, the aptly named ‘You won’t hear the bullets’.
The architect of the album on whom the whole construction depends, is John Edwards. The double bassist creates for the other two saxophonists, Dave Petts (Tenor) and Adrian Northover (alto), some extraordinary musical possibilities, and the trio remains very grounded. The two saxophonists don’t get in each others way, from their strident high pitch screams to their melodic themes, and even become united in ‘Strange Triangles’. In ‘Enemy Traffic’ Edwards with his bow creates a radiant energy that the saxophonists light up, before melting together into the depths.
Remote Viewers Trio is a unique group, it has been written and said before. Nevertheless, it is a group that has become essential by its intelligence, its creativity, its visionary aspect in a musical scene that usually tends to remain stiff and awkward.
Do not hesitate to contact the group to support their work, as they operate free of marketing constraints, with their own production and independent work guaranteed to 100%.

Philippe RENAUD
Improjazz September 2020



	Home New Releases Listen Large Ensemble Project Discography Reviews B Shops Occasional Series Buy Contact	REMOTE VIEWERS TRIO – NOTES IN A LOST FIELD (CD by Remote Viewers) Since about 20 years now David Petts (tenor sax) and Adrian Northover (soprano sax) work steadily on a very consistent and high-level corpus, with new records almost every year. They started as a trio, but over years The Remote Viewers had different extended line-ups. Since their last one, however - ‘Last Man in Europe’ (2018) - they returned to the trio format. They continue inthis line-up and even changed their name into Remote Viewers Trio, suggesting this might be a stable unit for the coming times. We will see. Again John Edwards joins on bass as the third member. The CD gives room to 15 short works, most of the compositions by David Petts. Five of them resulted from group improvisation. Like the opening track, ‘You Won’t Hear The Bullets’, thathas the three producing a tight and long extended bundle of noisy sounds. In contrast the second track ‘The Lighthouse’ is a modest work, starting with a delicate intro by Edwards. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I’m pretty sure David Petts doesn’t take part in other musical projects besides his one. He doesn’t leave his musical world very often, what illustrates or partly explains why this music has such a strong individual identity. Surely this is due to the idiosyncratic and strict compositional language of Petts and all dedication that is implied here. Northover however regularly appears in other musical projects. He worked with Pierre Bastien, Steve Noble, Marcello Magliocchi, among others. The title track ‘Notes lost in a Field has them in their most melodic and lyrical shape. Moreover, we find them performing very precise and to the point in the typical constructions delivered by Petts. Compositions, which are adventurous and distinct on one hand and very disciplined and sober on the other hand. As ever Petts refrains from all ornaments and unnecessary gestures. Defining a clear space for inspired improvisations as well. Excellent and inspiring! (DM) www.vitalweekly.net REMOTE VIEWERS TRIO Notes Lost in a Field (The Remote Viewers, RV16): The Londoners have grown to my heart for a good 20 years and through B-Shops For The Poor even longer, in all ramifications: David Petts as a well-groomed suit wearer the blonde features of Edward Fox with The Poison Cabinet or Chrome Yellow. Adrian Northover, dark and lean as Gabriel Byrne, with the Sonicphonics, The Runcible Quintet or TheCustodians Of The Realm. The incredible John Edwards of God and The Honkies on Spring Heel Jack, N.E.W. or Phall Fatale to New Old Luten as the busiest. But it is Petts who makes sure that the notes are not just scattered across the field. Only in five of the fifteen episodes do the three take liberties. Otherwise Petts fixes the tracks of his tenor sax sound, from Northovers Alto and Edwards' double bass on the drawing board. As trajectories of bullets ('You Won't Hear the Bullets', a cynical saying in "The Big Combo", 1955), as aerobatic figures ("Air Show") Think of Faulkner's Barnstromer in "Pylon", not Rammstein 1988. The closest relative of 'The Aspirin Kid' could be Hammett's 'Whosis Kid'. As with "City Of Nets" (2012), "Crimeways" (2013) and "Pitfall" (2014), the 'clairvoyants' suggest titles such as' Border Incident', 'Moscow Twitch', 'Strange Triangle', ' Foreign Intrigue '(the former actually a 1949 film title, the latter from 1946 and 1956), the black and white thrill of Film Noir, and paranoia in the Secret Service. Atmospheres such as in Graham Greene's "Ministry of Fear" or "The Third Man", as in Hitchcock, reflect black and white painting, paranoia, the fatal seductions and manipulations, the apparent and being discrepancies of today. Like the 'Bruised Years' in the title, the music itself has bruises and abrasions from the start, grated by rough tongues, abraded by arches. On the other hand, pithy and shimmering pizzicato and brooding unison of the reeds do not really set other signals, because the signals that are often repeated are cryptic and disturbing. Beat the brass Caligarische Winkel, Edward's fingers at a brisk pace, but also the sleek plans encounter rough headwinds. Edwards trembles and plocks, the saxophones twitch synchronous moves. Before cautiously optimistic repetitions, a line is whirring made by the bill. Circles turn with vorticistic serrations and edges, bold waves throw further waves. Two rusty throats crow, squeaking horns dismember melodies that Edwards saws and tugs at. This is how a Morse beat runs semi-lyrical or in muted concerns, a still smooth motif gets hiccups and creeps thinly. A few minutes are enough for Petts to get involved in a variety of complications, because his strategies are usually sabotaged by an intriguer, who in turn is himself. Consistently continuing what they started at "Last Man in Europe", they put 'Anti-Seed' (in "Mad Max: Fury Road" a word for bullets, bullets that only sow death) against the seeds of their notes. Almost lost. But not quite. Bad Alchemy[rbd] The Remote Viewers is a British wind band company around the saxophonists David Petts and Adrian Northover that has been surprising with exciting, adventurous, crystal clear and at the same time melancholic jazz for more than twenty years. On their penultimate album Last Man in Europe the three of them were also tenor saxophonist David Petts, alto saxophonist Adrian Northover and double bass player John Edwards, but this time they call themselves Remote Viewers Trio. The composition of the Remote Viewers has always changed, because Petts and Northover are always inviting others to play with, but it is striking that the three of them are capable of producing a beautiful, full, lush sound that at least betrays that they have been playing together for years. Most of the compositions are by Petts, although there are also a few trio improvisations. The music varies from exciting big city music like The Aspirin Kid to nicely subdued cozy pieces such as Big Rug or the closing track, the title track Notes Lost in a Field. All recorded in two days, mixed and mapped by John Edwards, and the case was designed by Adrian Northover. Energetic, exciting, adventurous, beautiful music with a lot to discover. So listen often. www.moorsmagazine.com After release one of last years Avant jazz highlights the excellent CD album The Last Man in Europe, London project The Remote Viewers(here as a trio) return once again with their distinctive blend of angular and often noir atmosphere focused jazz. Notes Lost in A field is fifteen track CD album which finds the project at it’s most fiery, noisy, angular and awkward. And once again it's another extremely worthy venture from the project, who really need way more exposure than they get.As with most of this projects fairly prolific discography, this new CD album is self-released. The CD’s presented in a simple-yet-effective mini gatefold sleeve, and on its front, we get a picture of the three player’s instruments in shadow. For this release, the players are band leader/ key songwriter David Petts on Tenor Sax, Adrian Northover on Alto Sax, and John Edwards on acoustic bass. So the sound is intimate, but also very searing and snarling. For the most part, the tracks are focusing on the projects more jarring and sinisterly off-kilter sound- all making for an effective release that remains nicely tight, taut and angular through-out…with later on in proceedings a more darkly moody edge coming into play. Things kick off in great sneering & snarling fashion with “You won't Hear The Bullets”- this just under four-minute track finds a claustrophobic mesh of baying and granting horn work stretched out into a gloomy-yet- seared fug of sound. Track number three “The Aspirin Kid” is a galloping- through- lopsided mix of tight bass pads and darts, which are blended with jarring yet urgent sax that just hints at a brooding noir melody. “Enemy Traffic” is all squealing & slicing horn work, against an almost brutal blend of slap bass & wondering saw. It’s only by the final track, the just over two-minute title track- that the trio slip into a more considered and decidedly moody pace- which finds Edwards bass padding out a bobbing lead line, to which the twin horns smokily waver and slide out the tracks darkly seductive melody line. With Notes Lost In A Field Petts and his cohorts have once again shown that they one of the most urgent, often jagged, and distinctive players in the Avant jazz scene at present. So please if you do enjoy the more seared, angular, and jarring side of Jazz you really need to do your self a favor and check this album out- to buy direct and find more about this project head here. Rating: 5 out of 5 Roger Batty www.musiquemachine.com/reviews REMOTE VIEWERS TRIO – Notes Lost In A Field By Massimo Ricci December 1, 2019 I wasn’t reporting on The Remote Viewers since 2015, though their uniqueness resonates quite clearly in this writer’s awareness. With each release, the creature of David Petts and Adrian Northover – here on tenor and alto sax, respectively – is capable of renewing its acoustic intelligence simply by the application of rational rules (besides the unmistakable technical dexterity) to alluring integrations of notated materials and extemporaneous sketching. John Edwards, whose double bass has been a cornerstone of the ensemble’s sound for a long time, belongs to the Remote Viewers Trio as an essential member, the juxtaposition of a stringed contrapuntal voice with the quivering of the reeds informing the mingling of textures in decisive fashion. Fifteen tracks – the majority penned by Petts, the remaining ones improvisations – reassert the musicians’ severe lucidity (occasionally bordering on cynical coldness) in approaching our auditory organization for the consequent stimulation of a distinct aesthetic consciousness. The recording studio was the obvious consequence of an extended period of live rehearsal; in fact, there does not seem to be a pitch out of place, not even where the music walks out of the reiterative grids and atonal patterns characterizing sizeable chunks of the project’s output. Petts, Northover and Edwards masterfully control timbral grains, parallelisms, intersections, placement of pauses and overall dynamic balance inside a wholeness brimming with sharp-cornered melodic lines. Intervals ranging from “extremely close” to “antipodal” assimilate a restricted nucleus of instrumentalists looking for an evolved fusion of modern jazz bits to a contemporary chamber ensemble more often than not. As it frequently happens with these gentlemen, the record is probably not going to be learnt by heart. Still, the artistic substance emerging from a potential impenetrability is, as ever, a highly appreciated gift. Skewed themes and weird clusters work wonders, sometimes. www.touchingextremes.wordpress.com Blow Up Magazine Remote Viewers Trio Notes Lost In A Field • CD self-production • For this release for David Petts's Remote Viewers, the real novelty is that there are no novelties, for a group that had hundreds of changes of personel (almost to each disc), this time the three-word formula is confirmed (hence the slight modification of the company name) in which Pett’s saxophone is flanked by Adrian Northover and John Edwards double bass. A dense and very eclectic album, with pieces of very variable duration (from one minute to over seven), "Notes Lost In A Field" shows how much it is possible to vary with such minimal instrumentation (it must be said that there are no beats or electronic trappings of any kind to support the sound, which is therefore exclusively acoustic). Among numbers that border on free jazz, hypnotic suites and other single episodes, those that convince the most show distorted melodies on enveloping iterative bases: Anti-Seed, Moscow Twitch, Strange Triangle. (7) Bizarre [The Remote Viewers] appearing today in a two-saxophone line-up, with one contrabass. With this ‘Notes Lost in a Field’ the trio, in my opinion, attains a maturity that allows them to vary their functional principles while still continuing to inscribe their work within a format of short and composed pieces (mainly by David Petts), whose initial work does not lack in humour, but still allows a certain vivacity of execution. Around the double bassist, who plays arco unisons with the other two or sets them off with his pizzicato, the two saxophonists deploy a great variety of combinations, with sounds that alternate or overlap, attempting to outdo each other, using an extended vocabulary and scansions that are sometimes Monk-like, marvellously playing the curves, the stridencies, and the alloys of these novel timbres. Claude Colpaert Revu and Corrige Notes Lost in a Field Remote Viewers, 2019, 49:26 The Remote Viewers have always been composed of saxophonists David Petts, who is also the author the vast majority of the repertoire, and Adrian Northover. At first they played as a saxophone trio (first with Louise Petts, later with Caroline Kraabel), subsequently, the saxophone section was strengthened by Sue Lynch - that's how they introduced themselves in the quartet at Alternative 2012, where bass and drum the party sounded like a sample. In most studios however, other musicians also took part in the work,most often bassist John Edwards. And that's right for the second time third to the college in the reduced line-up, which also appeared on the penultimate Last Man In Europe album from 2018. First released under the Remote Viewers label Notes Lost in a Field is the previous one and to some extent similar. Among the fifteen tracks is a third of the common improvisations from the introductoryYou Won’t Hear the Bullets through the nervous miniatures of the Air Show and Border Incident up to Brundibar and traffic collapse evoking Enemy Traffic and a secretive fragmented Foreign Intrigue. The compositions then sometimes really resemble note pads such as Aspirin Kid with chopped saxophones reminiscent of creation RV from a period inspired by lmem noir or geometric game Strange Triangle. We will find however, there are also larger masterpieces such as need e Lighthouse with typically Pettsian layered saxophone parties and gradual complicated bass solo that enhances the atmosphere reminiscent of lonely with a towering lighthouse and flashes of its lights. Moscow Twitch begins as an etude, but then develops into an extremely interesting rich structure and in the Big Rug the bass swings great and the saxophones they are wonderfully capricious. Abstract intro full Strange Sound has Barely Heard Stories where then through the conciliatory bass we get to astral positions. Again, the typical layering we also find in the penultimate Anti-Seed, where saxophones subsequently it howls and tenderly and sometimes sounds even like steamships. And it all ends wonderfully melodic nostalgia in the form of the title track. Petr Slabý From the beginning of the album, the sound here is rough: from the bass and from the saxophones, both tenor and alto. This roughness is almost a provocation. The Remote Viewers have been reduced down to a trio, but what power emerges from these three musicians! I still remember listening to them on the British Improvised scene I would continually listen to the original tapes of this, in which the insistent repetitiveness dominated, as did the insistence on a theme moulded to the will, in a certain posture that led to doubts about the improvising potential of the group. Here the group sticks to basics but goes the whole way. Fifteen pieces, all rather short (the whole album is no longer than 50 minutes), all produced carefully and with finesse, even the first piece, the aptly named ‘You won’t hear the bullets’. The architect of the album on whom the whole construction depends, is John Edwards. The double bassist creates for the other two saxophonists, Dave Petts (Tenor) and Adrian Northover (alto), some extraordinary musical possibilities, and the trio remains very grounded. The two saxophonists don’t get in each others way, from their strident high pitch screams to their melodic themes, and even become united in ‘Strange Triangles’. In ‘Enemy Traffic’ Edwards with his bow creates a radiant energy that the saxophonists light up, before melting together into the depths. Remote Viewers Trio is a unique group, it has been written and said before. Nevertheless, it is a group that has become essential by its intelligence, its creativity, its visionary aspect in a musical scene that usually tends to remain stiff and awkward. Do not hesitate to contact the group to support their work, as they operate free of marketing constraints, with their own production and independent work guaranteed to 100%. Philippe RENAUD Improjazz September 2020