V Vecker Ensemble: Acedia Phase CS

Whether opening for acts like Sun Araw, Goblin, and Acid Mothers Temple, or hunkered over piles of analog gear in their Strathcona studio, the main focus of Vancouver’s V Vecker Ensemble has always been group improvisation. As covid raged through 2020-21 and opportunities for live performance became increasingly scarce, the group steadfastly continued to meet weekly for its extended studio improv sessions, all of which were captured on tape. Parameters were simple; as soon as a key was chosen and the record button pressed, there was no turning back. Improvisations would often last late into the night, sometimes splintering into multiple variations on a theme, the three ensemble members responding to one another’s musical cues with the practiced ease that can only come from years of close collaboration.

'Acedia Phase' is a snapshot of those sessions; a vital document of the V Vecker Ensemble at the peak of its powers, and a beautifully heavy slab of ambient music. On 'Atonement', the drifting polysynths of David Rogers and Luke Rogers Requena set the scene; a temple of shadows into which V Vecker’s saxophone glides like a restless ghost. 'Cold Storage' sees icy washes of texture slowly give way to shimmering organ tones and the dark cycling modulations of 'Torpor', while 'Contours of Wear' drops us deep into a world of unexpected warmth and light. Closing the album at nearly fourteen minutes long, the title track revisits the crystalline notes of 'Cold Storage' before expanding outward on waves of saxophone into the furthest reaches of kosmische oblivion. An absolutely essential release.