Musicians:
Daunik Lazro – baritone & alto sax
Jean-François Pauvros – electric guitars
Roger Turner – drums & percussion
All music by Lazro (SACEM), Pauvros (SACEM) and Turner (PRS)
Tracks 1 and 2 recorded live at INSTANTS CHAVIRЙS (Montreuil) by Jean-Marc Foussat and Dominique Pauvros on 7th November 2008
Tracks 3 and 4 recorded live at festival JAZZ EN FRANCHE-COMTЙ (Besançon) by Jean-Marc Foussat on June 30th 2010
Edited and mixed by Jean-Marc Foussat
Mastered by Arunas Zujus at MAMAstudios
Design by Oskaras Anosovas
Produced by Danas Mikailionis
Co-producer – Valerij Anosov

After just four years of activity, Lithuania\’s No Business Records already boasts a catalogue of nearly 50 releases, ranging from the impressive to the essential, and this latest batch of No Business LPs continues the label\’s practice of releasing the work of major players alongside less well-known improvisers. French alto and baritone saxophonist Daunik Lazro has performed and recorded frequently with multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee, and it\’s no wonder that the two players have such an affinity for one another. Like McPhee, Lazro\’s solo music is bred from wayfaring solitude (as the recent Ayler solo baritone CD Some other Zongs– see review below – attests), and it can bleed into his group work as well. Curare is a slightly different beast, presenting Lazro in a trio with Parisian guitarist Jean-François Pauvros and English percussionist Roger Turner on four collective improvisations. The opening \”Morsure\” builds from low, breathy pops and nattering cymbal work to bulldozing gestural swoops, Pauvros\’ curling strums and charged obsessiveness stoking the fires in his mates\’ lungs and forearms. \”White Dirt\” finds the guitarist coaxing queasy vocal wails by bowing the head and neck of his instrument, with baritone and feedback droning underneath while Turner builds pattering waves into localized explosions. Lazro seems to favour drummers (or, rather, musicians) who use a stripped-down approach to create monolithic tension – Turner\’s seismic displacement is an extension of Sunny Murray and John Stevens, and Pauvros also directs simple actions into voluminous, garish areas. Switching to alto for the final piece, \”The Eye\”, Lazro emits high-pitched squeaks and crumpled calls over a latticework of shimmering electricity and delicate concentration, as warped glissandi and percussive churn build to an intense driving hum.
Clifford Allen