Nels Cline Remains Inner Directed For Elegant Results With ‘Consentrik Quartet’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

In recent years, Nels Cline’s albums on Blue Note have run the gamut from the lush, orchestrated romanticism of the expansive double-CD set Lovers of 2016 to the bristling interactions by his quartet on Currents, Constellations two years later. And the often other-worldly sounds of the Nels Cline Singers’ Share The Wealth are something else altogether. 

Now, as befits Cline’s unpredictable career arc apart from his long-term association with Wilco, the debut of the Consentrik Quartet suggests how the idiosyncratic guitarist remains inner-directed (right down to the purposefully modified spelling of the band’s name). 

Nels might well be talking about himself on the quietly reflective opening number, “The Returning Angel.” His soft chord sets the stage for the gentle waft of horn lines by saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, and the two proceed to circle each other slowly instrumentally. As this happens, drummer Tom Rainey and bassist Chris Lightcap spend minimal time as mere onlookers and instead almost immediately lock in to provide a graphic backdrop for their comrades.

This is a band with patience aplenty to match its adventurous spirit. The foursome often conjures up a mysterious atmosphere, too, even when it’s on an upbeat scale during a track such as “The 23:” Here, each of the four nudges each other along, delicate but insistent as they play, eventually progressing via an uptempo pace that allows the ensemble to maximize the potential of the composition. 

Along those same lines, an eerie mood permeates the musicianship on “House of Steam.” Nels Cline’s natural predilection for noise, even in muted form, stands him and his three bandmates in good stead there and on “Allende.” Such accomplishments are similar to the end results prevalent on the other tracks, which are mostly five-minute-plus, like “Surplus.” 

The bandleader wrote much of the material during the pandemic that quashed this ensemble’s earliest activities. The relative quiet of the upstate New York area to which he and his wife relocated around that time is no doubt the source of that gentility of touch he displays at the outset of “Slipping Into Something.”None of that delicacy disappears as he nimbly interacts with his cohorts on that number, either. In fact, the intertwining guitar and horn are emblematic of the traditionalism that grew out of the group’s initial assembly for a free-form appearance in Brooklyn back in 2019. 

Contrary to the title of a song named “Inner Walls,” the group proceeds unimpeded, wholly absorbed in the sounds they’re making on that cut. As a result, when Rainey begins to pound out a more pronounced rhythm, there’s a sense of deliverance from the taut suspense that’s been generated. Given the purposeful track sequencing here, it’s no coincidence that the next number begins with a crisp chord, giving way to atonal flurries of notes. 

“Satomi” is a Japanese name that evokes beauty and intelligence, and the Consentrik Quartet eventually coalesces in such a way that their musicianship depicts those virtues. Proceeding to the finish of these approximately sixty-five minutes via the leaps and bounds of “The Bag,” Nels Cline and company unfortunately end up going on a bit too long with this self-titled LP. 

“Down Close” seems a composite from earlier passages in the dozen selections. As a result, “Time of No Sirens” and “Question Marks (The Spot) ” might qualify as superfluous. As it turns out, however, playing these twelve tracks of Consentrik Quartet in reverse order reveals a certain tranquility bookending the sequence. So, because such circularity of logic is entirely in keeping with this group’s name, that eccentricity further distinguishes the LP as an unusually provocative piece of work.