New to be released soon on Hi4Head Records - CROSSINGS
Hannah Marshall and Mark Sanders were asked to play in this project because we would be able to work together in a different way. Their own instrumentation (cello and percussion) would also be suitable with the diversity of sounds being used on the keystation.
The affordable and easily portable keystation has a similar keyboard layout to a heavy acoustic piano. It has no sounds of its own but works like a 'trigger' if it's plugged in to a box containing sounds (these are called 'sound modules'). Each of the sounds that were chosen helped to make the character of each of the nine pieces
The nine pieces have all evolved very gradually, from finding a basic idea using as a source a certain sound generated from the sound module, and then developing that basic idea in to a 'sketch' on which to improvise. After 'solidifying' the improvisation, the pieces were then expanded to include ideas that were considered good enough to be worth notating. Throughout this process of growth and formation, playing the pieces as sketches with other musician friends helped me to make decisions on how to further develop them. The end result is that these are pieces that are substantial, but coming with this are considerable demands on us to play them effectively and well. Short audio samples of five of these pieces can be found on another page on this website. The support from ACE has enabled an intense period of rehearsal, followed by a professional recording which functions both as documentation and promotional material as a means of generating live concerts - and this is the story so far.
Hannah Marshall and Mark Sanders were asked to play in this project because we would be able to work together in a different way. Their own instrumentation (cello and percussion) would also be suitable with the diversity of sounds being used on the keystation.
The affordable and easily portable keystation has a similar keyboard layout to a heavy acoustic piano. It has no sounds of its own but works like a 'trigger' if it's plugged in to a box containing sounds (these are called 'sound modules'). Each of the sounds that were chosen helped to make the character of each of the nine pieces
The nine pieces have all evolved very gradually, from finding a basic idea using as a source a certain sound generated from the sound module, and then developing that basic idea in to a 'sketch' on which to improvise. After 'solidifying' the improvisation, the pieces were then expanded to include ideas that were considered good enough to be worth notating. Throughout this process of growth and formation, playing the pieces as sketches with other musician friends helped me to make decisions on how to further develop them. The end result is that these are pieces that are substantial, but coming with this are considerable demands on us to play them effectively and well. Short audio samples of five of these pieces can be found on another page on this website. The support from ACE has enabled an intense period of rehearsal, followed by a professional recording which functions both as documentation and promotional material as a means of generating live concerts - and this is the story so far.
|
While his wonderful trio with bassist John Edwards and pianist Veryan Weston is not represented, per se, two of the albums do allow audition of his work in that illustrious company, though the ever-adventurous Weston is at a keystation on Crossings. The nine pieces offer up a bewildering but sometimes whimsical array of influence, none more so than on “Extinction”. Dig that opening bass groove Weston is laying down, redolent of nothing so much as Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”, with Sanders only too willing to join in the fun. The funky groove just begins to sizzle when cellist Hannah Marshall intones the words of William Butler Yeats: “Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths…” Her cello-doubled melody inhabits a space outside but conjoined to everything else, a modal area of “light and half-light” placing Sanders and Weston’s sure-fire brick-and-mortar foundation in stark relief. It is a stunningly effective study in time and contrast, mirrored in an even subtler fashion on the aptly titled “Kalimba Setting”. Who’s got the melody anyway, Weston’s “kalimba” or Marshall’s wonderful pizzicato? Maybe, it’s actually given to Sanders’ hi-hat, which we hear transforming, almost without awareness, from exquisite echo and foil to rhythmic pillar.
Marc Medwin - AUGUST 2020 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD |
|
