This Montreal-based trio, together since 1984, is a fluent jazz-based ensemble with Michel Coté on saxophones and bass clarinet, Pierre Coté on bass and cello, and Michel Lambert on drums. Michel Coté and Lambert also play maïkotron, a brass-reed hybrid with a saxophone mouthpiece, a combination of valves and keys and multiple bells, with a five-octave range and a host of microtonal possibilities. The pieces are based on Lambert’s paintings, a series of tableaus that evoke northern seafaring, shipwrecks, ice-flows, churches, and traditional votive art. With these multiple and overlapping inspirations, the Maïkotron Unit’s pieces are—like votive paintings—precise miniatures: there are twenty on this CD, ranging from fifty-nine seconds to almost six minutes, with moods from pensive to jaunty. The CD is shaped by two contrasting elements: the Cotés’ ability to generate spontaneous melody—particularly tuneful on the lighter soprano saxophone and pizzicato cello—and the group’s alternative focus on bass frequencies and microtonality. It’s a whimsical and constantly engaging practice that’s somehow continuous with the catastrophes portrayed with such meditative grace in Lambert’s paintings.
Stuart Broomer has written extensively on music, mostly improvised, for both general and specialist publications, and his liner essays have appeared on CDs by musicians from some 20 countries. The author of Time and Anthony Braxton (Mercury, 2009), he is currently writing a fantasia on the life of Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips. He has been intermittently active as an improvising musician since 1965; his composition Found Theme for the Age of Reason appeared in Musicworks 112. He lives in Toronto.