John Butcher, Eddie Prévost

Unearthed opened High Laver Levitations, the Matchless series recorded in the old parish church of High Laver, Essex. On 2 June 2023 John Butcher on soprano and tenor saxophones and Eddie Prévost on drums played three long duets there, 78 minutes in all. Bill Meyer, in Dusted, counts it as the pair's third duo recording, and the first on which Prévost brought a full jazz kit instead of a reduced percussion set.

The two first shared a stage in 1990, at one of Derek Bailey's Company weeks, and Butcher has appeared now and then on AMM records. Meyer explains that the church, more than 800 years old, was chosen partly because travel had become harder for Prévost. Its lively acoustic suits Butcher, who has long played in caves, cisterns and other resonant spaces. Prévost draws on brushes, cymbal accents and syncopated pulse from his early years as a bebop drummer. Brian Olewnick hears echoes of Max Roach and Ed Blackwell in his tom-toms and hi-hat. For once there is no bowed cymbal at all. Butcher's soprano at times sounds close to a bamboo flute or a penny whistle, and in Digging a Prévost explosion sends him into a spinning, skirling cycle. In Meyer's words, His drumming doesn't blare, it sings (Dusted, 2024). Marc Medwin follows Lament for Old Bones from dirge towards something like a waltz. He hears the whole set move from full-on swing and fire to the most delicate chamber music (Point of Departure, 2023).

Released by Matchless Recordings in 2023 on CD (MRCD 114), recorded at All Hallows Church, High Laver, with liner notes by David Grundy.