Play Station 6
#1
(Evil Rabbit Records)
Of
all the "genres" in music that I listen to, the one that’s conventionally
referred to as "improvised music" is maybe the one I think about
more often. On one hand, the (quite large) number of different approaches,
the (by now), on the average, excellent quality of what gets released,
the (relative) user-friendliness of the final product, due to a better
signal-to-noise ration on the part of the CD when compared to vinyl, the
existence of "languages" (both personal and shared) that still
sound fresh, all this makes for a very pleasant experience. On the other
hand, though noisy (and ephemeral) phenomena occur from time to time, due
to some element that’s fashionable for a little while (here I’d say the
laptop to be a good example from recent times), as a whole, the "genre" has
never had a large audience (once in a while I think about whether the number
of listeners is really that larger than the number of players); while the
fact that more and more types of music, defeated by market forces, look
for dignity (and funding!) in Festivals that are subsidized by public money
has improvisers in a position of inferiority when compared to those who,
though semi-poor, have a name that’s well-known.
I
happen to think about these matters, more so when I listen to a CD like
the one released by the sextet called Play Station 6. Musicians who are
for the most part well-known (details in a moment), whose approach to music
here is in my opinion quite clear: it’s not the "particles",
the "grain", of sound that gets investigated here; instead, six
instrumental approaches get combined to produce something that’s original,
though not of the "never-heard-before"
type. Given their geographical origins (five Dutch, one German), and instrumentation
(winds, strings, percussion), I think it’s not impossible for readers to
have a mental picture of how this music sounds. The album was recorded by
Stefan Deistler in Cologne and mixed and mastered by Frank Van Der Weij in
Amsterdam: it’s a clear sound, which in my opinion greatly benefits from
a bit more volume on the amplifier.
I’m
not terribly familiar with Achim Kaufmann, here on piano, both in its straight
and prepared guise, and Meinrad Kneer, on double bass. One of the founders
of European Improvising, Paul Lovens developed his personal approach in
a variety of situations, from large ensembles like the Globe Unity Orchestra
to percussion dialogues with Paul Lytton. I listened for the first time
to violin player Maartje ten Hoorn in the mid-80s, in groups led by Maarten
Altena, and later in Misha Mengelberg’s Instant Composers Pool Orchestra;
I think she’s nowadays quite well-known (check her nice CD for string quartet,
titled Sparkles). Once they were "young guys on the scene", now
they are solid realities that need no introduction: clarinet and saxophone
(tenor) player Tobias Delius and cornet player Eric Boeren are the elements
that more often here refer to
"jazz" climates.
(A
personal note: Though I heard Boeren for the first time more than twenty
years ago, when he was part of an Altena-led line-up, though I tried very
hard, I never managed to buy one of the albums where he was the leader,
some of which were favourably reviewed in Down Beat and in The Penguin
Guide To Jazz On CD. From what I understand, 4/5 of his CDs are sent, fresh
off the presses, to the U.S.A., the rest being shipped to some shops in
London. OK, guys – but what about us?)
The
six players mix and match to perfection. Once in a while the jazz comes
out – first track on the CD, the brief Somorrostro reminded me of the theme
to Ornette’s Free Jazz; a jazzy, and agitated, tenor is featured on Man
With Scythe, along with piano and double bass; there is also jazz on the
long Bravas, which starting from 4′ has a development that’s almost Free.
Not surprisingly, there are often traces of "classical-sounding" climates,
where sometimes Boeren’s skillful muted cornet adds a nice "mismatch".
Nice
tracks are Glorie Van Holland, in some ways a good summary of the whole
album; Misty; the long Unprepared; Alone, with a nice opening for solo
double bass and nice work on tenor; the concentrated Outside Inside; Majo’s
Retreat, with
"African" percussion, and a nice "cool" clarinet: for
this writer, this is maybe the best piece on the album, in some ways reminiscent
of the best pages by Anthony Davis. But it’s the whole album that’s really
good and – keeping in mind the aforementioned coordinates – quite accessible.
The
cover alerted me to the fact that all pieces are "live improvisations,
no overdubs, no edits", and I have no reason to doubt this. But all
tracks, though
"unpredictable", have a sense of shape and proportion that’s quite
prodigious. (What about The Black Box? Violin and clarinet, plus rhythm,
start the piece, but then – at 1’15" – we have silence, and then piano,
and cymbals, that had me pleasantly wondering about how this transition had
occurred.)
Beppe Colli
© Beppe Colli 2007
CloudsandClocks.net | Apr. 1, 2007