Peter Brötzmann, Heather Leigh, Fred Lonberg-Holm

Recorded at ADA in Peter Brötzmann’s hometown Wuppertal as part of his 80th birthday concerts, Naked Nudes brings together two of his most unusual collaborators, Heather Leigh (pedal steel guitar) and Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello) for one of the most elegiac releases in his discography. The relationships between the players are tonally odd: woozy, mournful, almost baroque blues or even more chamber music in feel, the quality of the interplay is subtle and natural, like modern ballads. In the recordings Peter is pushed more to the front and it’s astounding to hear him playing with such strength after almost tw years of inactivity; this is one of the first concerts he played while the world was still in the midst of the pandemic. You can feel the weight of the moment in these recordings and can imagine a captive audience under the spell of this strange music that never feels overstated, hurried, frantic or finding.