Apr 21 2013
Something Different: Julia Kent – “Character”
The Something Different review series highlights albums that are unlike anything else, and which embrace the best qualities of creative vision.
*****
Former Rasputina and Antony & the Johnsons cellist Julia Kent has been recording some of the most sublime music all by her lonesome over the last handful of years. Kent has displayed a knack at enhancing her solo cello recordings with modern technology, like the use of loops and layering one cello part atop the other, and the use of found sounds as an ingredient of the finished product. Recordings like the 2007 release Delay, in which sounds of the airport were added to the music, and 2010 release Last Day in July and 2011’s Green and Grey, in which sounds recorded in nature were added to the wondrous mix of cello sections.
Following the highly acclaimed multi-media project “Parallel 41,” Kent is back with another solo cello release. But whereas her earlier recordings delivered music in slow languorous waves of serenity, Character delivers up a sound with an expansive presence and a sonic palette that trades finesse for something with a more assertive demeanor.
Your album personnel: Julia Kent (cello, found sounds, electronics & effects).
The album opens with “Ebb,” which reflects the music of past recordings, and gives only hints of the changes to come. Still peaceful, but now the music’s serenity is that of approaching storm clouds… coal black and grey, the flash of lightning emanating from within, a sense of foreboding, a beauty that inspires awe. This leads into “Transportation,” which builds on that foundation, maintaining the existing sound, but upping the power with which it’s delivered.
“Flicker” is the first pronounced sign of the changes to come. In a way that eschews her previous tendency to linear waves of sound, Kent loops strings by way of creating swirling eddies of motion within a longer, lusher foundation. And to this, she adds the accompaniment of an auto-harp, giving an icy ambiance to the cello’s innate warmth. And subsequent track “Tourbillon” adds a rhythmic element that had been absent heretofore… an element that serves a complementary role when paired with frenetic cello sections. This, with layers of cello laid over the top, adds to the growing intensity of the album.
“Fall” and “Kingdom” bring a darker tone to the affair. Slowing the pace down to an ebb, strings drift slowly and heavily across the length of the songs. “Kingdom” is especially pronounced in the way it delivers darker colors to a darker album. The sound of a match being struck is washed over by processed sounds that mimic the howl of winter winds and the countdown chimes of a grandfather clock.
“Only Child” is a return to form. A soft fireplace warmth… a heat that never threatens to burn out of control. This serves as another launching point, as “Intent” blooms into a larger sound. A rhythmic element via strings and effects, a sound not unlike the tinkling of chimes, and Kent’s cello lofting up into warped curvatures, taking unexpected angles and sudden increases and decreases in elevation. And “Salute” adds the sound of glasses clinking and a match struck alive to the soulful cry of cello.
The album ends with “Nina and Oscar,” a crosshatch of somber harmonies and bright notes. By itself, it might be considered understated, but in the way it brings this new album to a close, it makes for a satisfying fade off into the distance… a conclusion that wraps things up into a nice bow with a simple statement that does nothing to undercut the teeth of the album’s large center, nor diverge away from its heart or soul. Just plain beautiful.
Released in 2013 on The Leaf Label.
Available on Kent’s Bandcamp page, in CD, MP3, and Vinyl formats.
Available at eMusic. Available at Amazon: CD
*****
Also, Kent and The Leaf Label are offering a remixed version of an album track at Name Your Own Price (which includes ‘free’) at her Bandcamp page. It is the song “Transportation,” remade and remixed by some of her fellow artists on the Leaf Label.
And I do highly recommend her other recordings, particularly Green & Grey, which I still listen to pretty frequently. It’s one of those recordings that goes perfectly with a sunrise.
Available on her Bandcamp page. Available at eMusic. Available at Amazon: CD
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Sep 28 2013
Brian Haas & Matt Chamberlain – “Frames”
But you do hear it and it does touch you, and its presence in that silent field, all by your lonesome has an evocative presence, a profound sense of something special… like a gift.
I remember sitting 7500 feet above sea level, at the top of Green Mountain, and listening to the distant sound of a brass marching band lifting up to me from down below in Boulder, at the University of Colorado’s football stadium. I remember standing outside my home in Denver in Five Points, and listening to the sounds of gospel drifting along a cool Spring breeze on a serene Sunday morning. I remember the unmistakable sound of Thelonious Monk’s piano straining to be heard from some untraceable source from any number of the windows lining the rows of apartment buildings in my Lakeview neighborhood pad in Chicago.
These were the thoughts inspired in me by Frames, the new album from Brian Haas and Matt Chamberlain. Touching upon a number of influences, spanning the range from the stride piano of Fats Waller, the melodic shape-shifting of Brad Mehldau, the modern electronica of Air, the haunting dreaminess of Bill Frisell, the modern classical austerity of a Nils Frahm, and the minimalism of Steve Reich and Brian Eno Music for Airports… it’s like music carried from a distance far away. And these influences don’t shape the music so much as whisper into its ear.
Your album personnel: Brian Haas (piano) and Matt Chamberlain (drums, percussion).
Brian Haas, a long-time member of the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, wrote these compositions not long after leaving Tulsa, Oklahoma behind and setting down roots in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This music speaks to that area’s Big Sky languor… the feeling of being simultaneously dwarfed by something much greater than you while also feeling very much a part of it all because of its proximity. The desert air instills a quiet over its surroundings, and it carries sound from very far away.
Matt Chamberlain has manned the drums for a disparate group of musicians, but most relevant in this instance has to be his contribution to the Floratone ensemble, a group that included Bill Frisell, Tucker Martine, Lee Townsend, Eyvind Kang, Ron Miles, and Viktor Krauss. Their music was a mix of jazz, folk, and electronica, and it sounded like all these things but, even more, it sounded like none of them. The ratios were perfected, and it sounded like something new. Their two albums had an ethereal presence that provoked a series of emotional reactions. It was like a soundtrack to a movie soundtrack.
Frames behaves in much the same way. The ambient sparseness of “Birth” develops quickly into a swirling tempest of melodic pattern repetition. “Niche” employs similar devices, but takes a more linear approach to reach its destination.
Both “Open Windows” and “Death: An Introduction” possess a comforting warmth… the former of darkness settling in over the land, and the latter of the rising sun chasing that darkness away.
The waltz-like formalism of “Prism” is followed by the swaying boisterousness of “Of Many, One,” and the shifting of kinetic motion seems natural, even logical. This transformation continues from the pounding tempo of “Drive” and into the mercurial contemplation of “Death: An Observation.”
“Closing Window” has a staggered gait that suddenly gets a second wind and takes right off. leading into the percussion downpour of “An Empty House,” in which Haas and Chamberlain chop up the beat into tiny servings.
The album ends with the introspective “From Nothing, Infinite,” a tune that barely registers as a whisper, and could be and come from anything.
Released on the Royal Potato Family label.
Music from the Santa Fe, NM scene.
Available to purchase on October 15th, 2013.
Pre-order the album from the Royal Potato Family site (before 10/15/13), and Brian Haas will improvise a piece of music based on your Personal Astrological Chart. Seriously. Details HERE.
Available at: eMusic | Amazon CD
| Amazon Vinyl
I’ll update the links when the album becomes available on eMusic.
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By davesumner • Beyond Jazz Reviews, Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2013 Releases • 0