Disaster at Sea
The Madison-based Scott Fields Ensemble doesn’t waste a moment on its sinewy debut for Berkeley’s Music & Arts. Picking up where the late Sonny Sharrock left off, Fields threatens to wear out his plectrum five minutes into “Sputter,” the furiously free second movement of “Disaster at Sea,” an intricately developed long-form work that evokes the tensions of its aqueous theme with unexpected irony. From then on, the guitarist/composer alternates between aggression and reflection, building a tonal architecture that’s consistently interesting and often quite stunning. — Isthmus