Various

Widdershins is the third volume of Making a Journey to a Bright Nowhere, recorded at Cafe OTO in London on 23 July 2022. That night belonged to the weekly improvisation workshop that Eddie Prévost founded in London in 1999. Prévost tested positive for Covid that morning and could not play, and guitarist N. O. Moore was also absent. Fifteen workshop members performed, with guitarist Ross Lambert, one of its first participants, standing in as facilitator.

David Grundy, himself an occasional participant, describes the method. Players form a relay around a circle, a duo becoming a trio as the next one joins and the first drops out. Then the facilitator picks smaller groups. Prévost's word for the attitude it trains is noticing, listening whether or not one is playing. The CD follows that shape. Widdershins One brings together seven players for 17 minutes and Widdershins Two the other eight for almost 20, followed by two trios, three quartets and a closing sextet. The line-up mixes two voices, two guitars, saxophone, clarinet, three trumpets, trombone, cello, double bass, electronics and theremin. Grundy remembers Emmanuelle Waeckerlé singing Eddie, Eddie in duet with Iris Ederer. He also recalls Keisuke Matsui scraping a cello wired to a feedbacking amp, and a low passage for two trumpets and trombone. For Stuart Broomer the standards of response, invention and discretion are extraordinarily high (The Free Jazz Collective, 2023).

Released by Matchless Recordings in 2023 on CD (MRCD 111), with notes by Prévost and by workshop members.