You'll find it easy to just close your eyes and swing your head and pat your feet on the ground along with the high hat, which doesn't quite let you get comfortable in your beat-keeping. Then everyone drops away for some drum rolling and an echo back to "Innocence," which Nelson posits in the liner notes is ultimately the piece's heart.
As a whole, both the composition and the performance do, indeed, have a lack of artifice. Pursuit is both challenging and fun, which is hard to pull off, but easy to recognize.
Sam Pfeifle can be reached at sam_pfeifle@yahoo.com.
PURSUIT | Released by Richard Nelson Imaginary Ensemble | at Woodfords Church, in Portland | June 10 | richardnelsonmusic.com
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