London-based alto saxophonist Dee Byrne's five-piece Entropi continue their extra-terrestrial flight with 'Moment Frozen' - a sweeping sequence of eight original compositions inspired by galactic and chronometric themes. The band's now-established personnel is completed by Andre Canniere (trumpet), Rebecca Nash (piano/keys), Olie Brice (double bass) and Matt Fisher (drums). Entropi have already forged a sparky signature sound, their combined goal of breaking into new orbits lifting both fierce and nebulous extemporisation from the written page. It's an effective balance which is as much due to Dee Byrne's compositional generosity (born out of her eclectic musical collaborations in Western Europe, on route to gaining a Masters at Trinity Laban) as the seemingly inexhaustive, searching intent of her colleagues. The quintet's two-horn solidity is finely wrought, featuring bristling unison riffs and harmonic collisions, yet Byrne's and Canniere's breakaways into freely improvised hyperspace also find an empathetic, textural connection with the rhythmic and chordal probings of Nash, Brice and Fisher. Indeed, as Dee elaborates on the band's founding vision, "I was always looking for the intensity of John Coltrane's quartet and the later Miles Davis groups, taking forward something of their 1960s spiritual depth and energy into our own, progressive experience. Music is a healing force - I feel very much in tune with that concept. Entropi has grown together as a band, and expression is everything. So the album was created from live, whole takes in the studio - moments frozen". Personnel: Dee Byrne (alto saxophone), Andre Canniere (trumpet), Rebecca Nash (piano), Olie Brice (double bass), Matt Fisher (drums)
