Almost everything about Sueños Paralelos sounds wrong. Drummer Lionel Friedli could be auditioning for a rock band. Hans-Peter Pfammatter’s synthesizer belongs in an avant-prog ensemble. The storied saxophonist Tony Malaby and Swiss violinist Laura Schuler get tangled up like competitive kite fighters. The quartet’s rude, unpolished anti-jazz is a combative rebuttal to the codified, calcified realm of mainstream improvised music.
