The quartet Amok Amor was founded upon the existing trio of Christian Lillinger (drums), Petter Eldh (bass) and Wanja Slavin (alto sax), who wanted to augment their band with another reedist in order to expand their sound spectrum. At a festival in Austria they teamed up with Peter Evans (trumpet) - it was a match made in heaven.

Of course such a line-up evokes memories of the legendary Ornette Coleman Quartet with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell however, this music is completely different. Amok Amor, rather, is interested in sound colors, apart from jazz their influences also include classical avant-garde, hiphop and beat music propelled by a punkish attitude. For most parts the music is a tour de force of call-and-response patterns, rhythmic diversions, complicated metric figures and deconstructed harmonic fragments.

"Pulsar", the opening track, continues the concept of their debut album (Boomslang Records, 2015). It’s an eight-and-a-half-minutes monster of permanent alert. Evans’ sharp trumpet lines are foiled by Slavin’s precise alto stabs, a row of signal-like short phrases is embedded in damaged beats. The track spills over with velocity and density literally assailing the listener, it’s on the verge of demanding too much (but it doesn’t cross this line). Evans and Slavin trade blows on a vast number of tonal and phrasal elements topped by Eldh and Lillinger delivering a crazy rhythmic hotbed. Especially Eldh’s bass constantly pumps new blood into the veins of the track. At the end there’s a single trumpet tone, carved in stone, accompanied by hi-hat barrage. That’s how it feels when you’re punched directly on the kisser.

The album contains similar tracks like “Trio Amok“ or “The New Portal“ but it is more than just a second brew of the debut. For example, there are two points of rest on We Know Not What We Do: the Peter Evans composition “Alan Shorter“, a homage to Wayne’s older brother, and Wanja Slavin’s “Jazzfriendship“. In the first Slavin’s alto sax sounds like a flute, seducing Evans’ trumpet to come up with phrases cool as a Miles Davis riff from Ascenseur Pour L'Échafaud. The latter presents a head which is close to easy listening, mirroring certain motives by playing them backwards.

Additionally, the album provides another novelty compared to the first one: the use of electro-acoustic elements (strangely, it’s not mentioned in the liner notes who’s responsible for them). The finale of the album, “A Run Through the Neoliberalism“ starts like the opener. But then the electronics pick up the head of the reeds, slow it down and alienate it. Christian Lillinger said that the piece was meant to be a political statement, that there was more to it than just music, it was about the attitude behind it.

All in all, We Know Not What We Do combines effortlessness and complexity, a lust for improv and an absolute awareness of form and structure. It’s a great example of precise musicianship and inventiveness, a postmodern smorgasbord of exactitude and zigzagging playfulness.

Unfortunately, it seems that the project’s been put on ice in the meantime, there are no further plans for albums or tours in the near future. At least, there are two wonderful CDs that document the music of this superb group.

https://www.freejazzblog.org/2018/01/amok-amor-we-know-not-what-we-do-intakt.html?spref=fb

Of course it’s not just pianists who will determine the future of 21st century improvised music. Horn players and drummers will make their own noises. Take for example two of the players in the Amok Amor (AA) quartet, American trumpeter Peter Evans, 36 and German drummer Christian Lillinger, 33. Their work with alto saxophonist Wanjan Slavin and bassist Peter Eldh on We Know Not What We Do (Intakt CD 279 Intaktrec.ch), shows their interactive skills in one of the many bands in which they participate. It’s the same story with Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Dave Rempis, 42 and drummer Tim Daisy 41, featured on The Halfway There Suite (Relay Recordings 016 timdaisy.com) by the drummer`s Celebration Sextet. Different discs could find Rempis in the leadership role or both as sidefolk.

Composers as well as players – Evans wrote two tunes on We Know Not What We Do and Lillinger three –the key to their talents is how carefully they work in an organized setting, as on “Pulsar”, the Evans-penned first track. It’s lavish and lovely, notched with contrapuntal slurs and staccato tremors from the horns as the drummer’s percussive bumps and focused rim shots keep the tune bouncy and relaxed. These ambulatory dynamics are also present on “Trio Amok”, a Lillinger composition, pushed along with percussion bumps and rumbles and resonating pumps from bassist Eldh. While Evans’ spectacular brassiness adds to the tune’s tautness, a respite after he intertwines open-horn brays with staccato tongue flutters from Slavin dissipates the tension. A more striking instance of the drummer’s dexterity is on “A Run through the Neoliberalism”, another of his compositions, during which altissimo reed squalls and trumpet tattoos set up as a staccatissimo, near-bebop romp. The drummer’s accompaniment may crackle and churn, but as the horns work explodes the theme into atoms, his cymbal cascades and rim shots glue it back into a swinging whole. With some of the other tracks utilizing palindromes, balladic melancholy, fiery stomps and rhythmic stop-time sequences, AA keeps the session engaging and moving. The saxophonist and bassist get solo space as well, with the combination of power and bluster from the rhythm section and inventive flutters and echoes from the horns ensuring that while predicting what sounds will appear next is nearly impossible, the knowledge that they will be first-class is confirmed.

https://www.jazzword.com/reviews/christian-lillinger-petter-eldh-peter-evans-wanja-slavin/