''Collective Calls (Urban) (Two Microphones)'', subtitled "an improvised urban psychodrama in eight parts", is an album by saxophonist

Evan Parker Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...

and drummer

Paul Lytton Paul Lytton (born 8 March 1947, London) is an England, English free jazz and free improvisation, free improvising percussionist. Lytton began on drums at age 16. He played jazz in London in the late 1960s while taking lessons on the tabla from ...

. It was recorded in April 1972 at the Standard Essence Co, a small loft space in London, and was released later that year by

Incus Records Incus Records is a British record company and record label, label founded by Derek Bailey (guitarist), Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley, Evan Parker and Michael Walters that specializes in free jazz and free improvisation, improvised music. The first ...

. The album was reissued on CD by

Psi Records Psi Records is an independent record label that was founded by saxophonist Evan Parker, and that focuses on free improvisation Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any general rules, instead following the intuition of ...

in 2002.

Reception

In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, François Couture wrote that the album "was filled with amazing sounds that remain puzzling to this day... The pair explores the very quiet and very loud, unveiling new sounds and textures... the tracks... form a succession of sharp contrasts, with each side of the original LP ending with a short drone piece that leaves the listener clueless. Decades after the fact, ''Collective Calls'' still packs an artistic punch." The authors of ''

The Penguin Guide to Jazz ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled b ...

'' awarded the album 3½ stars, and stated: "these are riveting performances, intensely concentrated and very faithfully captured... the whole has admirable coherence and consistency." Writing for ''Bells'',

Henry Kuntz Henry Kuntz is a free jazz saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. In 1979 he founded Hummingbird Records and Tapes, which released, among other things, live recordings of his free jazz trio, Trio Opeye. Cadence Magazine described his multitrack ...

commented: "the main focus of much of the music is harmonic. Parker's work tends to be in long areas of sound, more defined by timbre than by pitch which, by utilizing rapid changes of embouchure, he is able to surround with several seemingly independent sound sources. There are obvious similarities to some types of electronic music... but while Parker's range is necessarily more limited than most electronic instruments, he is able to move about with greater ease and to impart to his work a greater urgency."

Track listing

# "Peradam" – 5:09 # "Cat's Flux 2" – 5:45 # "Shaker" – 13:00 # "Left of the Neo-Left" – 1:12 # "Lytton Perdu" – 13:25 # "Voice Fragment" – 0:21 # "Some Mother Blues" – 8:30 # "What's Left of the Neo-Left" – 1:55

Personnel

– soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, home made instruments, cassette recorder *

– percussion, electronics, sounds, noises

References

{{Authority control 1972 collaborative albums Evan Parker albums Paul Lytton albums Instrumental duet albums Incus Records albums Psi Records albums