Now in his eighty-third year, drummer Tony Oxley has, along with the likes of Evan Parker, become an elder statesman of the European free improv scene – and not only as a musician; along with Parker, Derek Bailey and Michael Walters he co-founded Incus, a vital label in the development of free improvisation.

As he ages, releases naturally become more infrequent, and, it has to be said, that little bit more special; and so it is with Beaming, his most recent recording (made at his home studio in Germany back in the pre-pandemic era and released on Mark Wastell's excellent Confront Recordings label).

At first glance it seems a little odd that a drummer would hand over acoustic percussion duties to someone else (in this case, Stefan Hölker, whose association with Oxley goes back more than a quarter-century), but it should be remembered that Oxley has long been a champion of amplified and electronic percussion. So, instead of drums, Oxley is credited with ‘electronics and concept’ – the concept being to combine newly-recorded 2019 improvisations from both musicians with 1972 recordings of Oxley playing his famous ‘frame’ (a kind of amplified cage containing acoustic percussion wired up to various contact mics, electronics and noise generators); this explains why Beaming's six tracks are all entitled ‘Frame’.

As might be expected with the ever-questing Oxley, the point is texture and dialogue rather than overt rhythm; the result is a set of six (very different) soundscapes rather than straightahead ‘pulse’ tracks, the rhythm is always there, of course, but it's implicit rather than explicit, and all the better for it. The recording is of good quality, allowing the listener to make out the various textures (from fizzes and sighs to bangs and metallic scrapings) with ease, and the empathy between Oxley and Hölker is both tangible and quite remarkable. If you're a fan of Oxley's pioneering electro-acoustic experiments, then you'll not want to miss this.