remastered 2019
Intense, soaring heavy metal freejazz – if late Coltrane met Jimi Hendrix, or if Maha Orch played free, you’d have some idea of the soundscape of this Trio with drummer Dave Wayne and bassist Dave Nielsen. This trio was the precursor to the first incarnation of Love Unfold The Sun.
After two acoustic solo albums exploring the intersections of free jazz and pre-PdL flamenco (Warning Clothed In Bright Robes Of Dawn, 1995, and Sangre Del Rio, 1997), it was time to plug in.
Though isolated in extremely rural Clayton, NM, I found some Santa Fe – based kindred players in two Daves — Dave Wayne and Dave Nielsen — and I made the trek (about a six hour round trip) once every few weeks to play.
Culled from the 2000 sessions and released the following year on a label that ran into trouble soon after, I released it under the Norumba imprint in 2003 with permission from the original label and slightly revised (and still not great) artwork. The current, simpler cover is new for 2019.
(The 2003 reissue makes it the only CD I know of to have as its cover art, photos from its original CD release concert).
Remastered for 2019, this was the Trio’s only release. By 2003, the formation evolved into Love Unfold The Sun, with the addition of Dan Pearlman, cornet.
LUTS rebooted in 2018, and remains active.
RUN FOR HEAVEN
Wrath of God 2:46
Xibalba 10:18
In Ueuetque 7:33
Fire Garden 7:35
Nightpath 4:58
Sunpath 5:13
Blues for the Here and Gone 14:34
Morning River 4:13
Run For Heaven 14:23
Recorded live to CDR summer and fall 2000. All material 100% improvised.
Some reviews from the original release:
…There are – perhaps inevitable – echoes of guitarists as diverse as Sharrock and Blood Ulmer, but the urban savagery of the former and the claustrophobic heat-energy of the latter chill out in the high desert air of New Mexico, and nobody’s watching the clock in case the band overruns its studio time. The musicians really stretch out – perhaps even too much at times: Nielsen has the sense not to follow Wayne into the treacherous canyon of straight jazz-rock in the title track, while “Nightpath”‘s percussion is just a little too spaced-out for this listener (though maybe that’s because I’m bang in the middle of a big city).
Stefan Dill, well-versed in classical, jazz, flamenco and rock, is a licks man, meaning not that he throws them in willy-nilly in a display of empty virtuosity, but rather that he knows just the right place to insert them as logical natural developments in his long, unfolding solos.” Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic, April 2002
” Loud, burning, skronky stuff (although, they do calm down at times and indulge in some more restrained, quiet passages). It’s all very beautiful if you’re into this sort of thing, definitely for fans of Mahavishnu John McLaughlin and Nels Cline!! Cool.” -Aquarius Records, March 2002
“The acerbic jazz-rock captured on Run For Heaven is improvised in its entirety and centres around Stefan Dill’s guitar work, packed with Hendrix inspired blues licks and string bends, coupled with John McLaughlin out there raw energy bursting into beautifully sustained feedback parries with bass and drums, entwined to form this free jazz trio’s bold statement.
Elsewhere plump acoustic guitar and bass splish splash through flamenco heat and ice, conjoining in a true fusion, while the last time I heard something similar to the next track intro was in a monastery on the Rongbuk glacier. But fragile chimes and rattles, thick skin drums and Yak bells soon give way to the most Lifetime-like music this side of Turn It Over. Is this what they were trying to achieve on Emergency? I wonder. If only there was a Hammond in there too. To coin a well known phrase, “it’s music, but not as we know it Jim”. To coin another, “do yourself a favour, buy Run For Heaven”. Don’t miss this chance in a Lifetime.” Julian Derry, March 2002 the JMWeb
“With Stefan Dill on guitars, Dave Nielsen on bass, and Dave Wayne on drums. Exceptionally well-recorded, and gripping at points… Some extended guitar scree abounds. “Fire Garden” puts the trio in a more contemplative series of sounds, yet still with that frenetic energy, much like a moth flitting about the room that refuses to be swatted. Bells and scratching and chimes and resonance now. The tones of the guitar rise like spectral waves of heat on the two-lane blacktop, and the engine revs and races across the humid stretch of time. “Morning River” is more of the mellow still left unharshed (acoustic guitar and drum brush division), crepuscular bass reaching out from the gathering twilight, and “Run for Heaven” spins the trio out as if the alarm had gone off and there was a bus to Heaven that had to be caught; smiling victorious as it’s just barely caught before driving away.” -David Cotner-, Freq, April 2002