AMM

Norwich is the first AMM release by the duo of percussionist Eddie Prévost and pianist John Tilbury after Keith Rowe left the group. It was also the first AMM concert given in East Anglia. Its five untitled pieces, a little under an hour in all, show the reduced group finding a new balance of quiet sound, space and gradual change.

The concert took place at the School of Music of the University of East Anglia on 14 February 2005. The school had made improvisation the theme of its curriculum that year. It invited Tilbury and Prévost to give lectures and workshops as well as the concert, which was recorded by Simon Waters, then a senior lecturer there. In his note Waters is struck by the music's immediate memorability, shared by the audience. He writes that "there's something extraordinarily 'composed' about their activity", albeit composed in real time. The pieces last between eight and thirteen minutes. In Musicworks Stuart Broomer described Rowe's departure as a large shift, given his sonic resourcefulness and abrasive electronics. He chose instead to dwell on what the new AMM is, hearing "a gradual sense of calm unfolding". He compared its spaciousness to George Crumb's night music and to the quiet dynamism of Morton Feldman. Later writers on the duo felt that its early performances still tried to fill the spaces Rowe had left.

Issued by Matchless Recordings as MRCD 64 on CD in 2005, with a cover by Janice Tilbury inspired by a thirteenth-century map attributed to Matthew Paris.