John Dikeman, Stefan González, & Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - Texas Butt Biters (2022)

Peak Astral Spirits - four improvisers from a range of backgrounds get together in a room with no plan other than to make an awful racket. All four are brilliant, but on this occasion, the most noteworthy for me are Håker Flaten and Dikeman: the former (bass) is given a very generous degree of space by his bandmates to thrash, thunder and groove at the forefront of the album's heaviest moments; the latter (sax) has a plaintive undercurrent in his playing which gently colours even the most aggressive overblowing with a tinge of fragility. The music is gloriously uninhibited, entirely unpredictable and overflowing with joyful abandon - the epitome of what free jazz can be in the 21st century.