Spykes - The Water Gallows

Solo awkwardness by John Olson, again flexing his negative-space muscles with jagged tones and defiantly unresolved non-structures. This is free improvisation at its most truly free, genuinely unstable and likely to move in any direction moment-to-moment. That quality sets Spykes (and most everything that Olson plays on) miles apart from all those well-funded and palatable improv festival circuit whores who "improvise" but take care that their freedom is predictable enough to get them invited back to the next relatively-lucrative gig. John Olson's improv doesn't try to be likable or even conventionally satisfying. It's a good thing he's a prolific as he is, because no one else makes music like this. A numbered edition of 30 copies on American Tapes from 2005.

Spykes - The Water Gallows