Claudia Solal, Katherine Young, Tomeka Reid, Benoit Delbecq - Antichamber Music
The Free Jazz Collective
50
By Keith Prosk
This particular bridge between the French and American improvising communities joins Claudia Solal (voice) and Benoit Delbecq (piano) with Tomeka Reid (cello) and Katherine Young (bassoon, effects) for 9 tracks across 39 minutes. Solal and Delbecq have not recorded together previously but have a duo due out (at the time of this writing) later this year on RogueArt. Reid and Young have recorded together on Anthony Braxton’s Trillium E and Trillium J operas as well as a reversed transcription of Black Sabbath’s “Into the Void” performed by a 10-piece jazz orchestra called From Beyond. This is the first time the French and American players have recorded together.
The words on this recording are from James Joyce’s Chamber Music, a collection of 36 love poems known for their accessible lyricism, facilitating their frequent use in music. For the Antichamber Music project, the poems aren’t necessarily used in order of the collection, or in full, or even linearly. They can be sung, spoken, or perhaps just intimated. This freedom in choice of material allows Solal to improvise along with the musicians. The project appears to have specific goals, of associated timbres, imaginary quartets and scores, threads, a breadth and bridging of genres, but the information surrounding it is so vague that it seems like it really just stems from a desire to explore the interaction of improvised narrative with improvised instrumentation.
The narrative definitely dominates the interaction. The voice is loud in the mix. Solal might wait for space or allow space but there is very little communication from voice to instrument except for the “mmm-mmms” and “ooohs” mimicking the cello and bassoon in “O Cool is the Valley Now/Sweet Imprisonment;” more often than not, Reid and Young will react and briefly harmonize with Solal, or Delbecq will match her cadence. Except for some some “mmms” and “ooohs” on the aforementioned track and “Forget me Not,” the voice is completely narrative with no extended technique and sung or spoken in a kind of sultry lounge style with no affectation reflecting the content of the material or fragmentation of it. The music bubbling beneath the voice is often sparse and austere, reminding me of Maneri/Maneri/Phillips or the chamber music of Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa. Delbecq has a glassy, delicate, shimmering style until he reaches inside the piano to create a sound closer to mallet instruments (or strum a few beautiful glissandos). Reid appears to move through this space most comfortably, playing arco, plucking, or drumming the body with her fingers like rain on bamboo and readily communicating with every member of the quartet. Young seems particularly restrained on this recording, but her playing is simultaneously soulful, jarring, romantic. The music is bewitching, yet its potential feels unrealized as it must more often play around the voice than with it. “O Cool is the Valley Now/Sweet Imprisonment” and “Forget me Not” are good tracks, and the first and last minutes of the release are sublime, with many glimpses of beauty in between.
Antichamber Music is available digitally and on CD.
Antichamber Music by The Bridge Sessions
Wed Apr 10 04:00:00 GMT 2019