I can’t say that I am any sort of expert in the freeform jazz genre but my ears are always ready to be taken to the limit of their understanding and Moscow based Petyaev-Petyaev made a sterling effort to do just that with their album “Incomparable Greatness”.
It would appear that this album is an expression of spiritual intent which seems appropriate as freeform jazz is, almost by definition, without a conventional interpretation of shape or form and is thus perfect to portray anything to do with an unknowable deity. Instrumental meanderings duly abound as if the speed of sound had suddenly become as relative as the speed of light and, with a saxophone playing the role of a pied piper, the end result as much a spiritual journey to the Emerald City as it is the voice of the Krell transferred once more from illusion into reality.
Of the songs, the title track “Incomparable Greatness” becomes almost, but not quite, conventional over its duration but this is no more than a diversionary tactic as we the listener, now lost in a fog of musical misdirection, were never likely to be allowed to stay on the straight and narrow for long. Nothing here is ever rushed, of course, and the constant changing of direction, always on this band’s terms, is always preceded by spirited improvisation or extemporisation with that resulting unpredictability being, undoubtedly, the best thing about this album. There are times when everything makes the kind of sense that music in the jazz genre generally does yet, but a moment later, even the underlying ecumenical interpretations are likely to be taken for a walk on the wild side.
If your mind has not previously wandered down the more experimental alleyways of the musical city then even figuring out which way to look for the next verse, chorus or stanza can be confusing yet there is nothing particularly unapproachable about “Incomparable Greatness”. Music with spiritual content is hardly unusual in any genre that you might care to mention and, in that context, Petyaev-Petyaev make as much sense as they need to and, as faith is effectively indefinable, expressing the shape and form of that which is divine in a musical manner can be anything they want it to be so “Incomparable Greatness” can therefore be considered a success.