By Stef Gijssels

The only real purpose why this album has not been reviewed earlier than, is because of a easy type of humility with the query of how on earth I can do credit score to it with out making a suboptimal view to potential listeners of the standard of the music they are going to hear. I’ve been mesmerised by it because the first time I listened to it, and  I assume I’ve reached the milestone of 100 occasions within the meantime. 

All through her musical profession, Swiss pianist and composer Sylvie Courvoisier has explored the probabilities of good and adventurous music within the area that covers composed and improvised idioms, together with her latest take with Cory Smythe on Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps/The Rites Of Spring, a proper acknowledgement of the classical parts that at all times permeated her sound. 

“Chimaera” is a soar ahead in my opion, and on the similar time a logical although sudden step in her profession. 

First, there’s the line-up, fascinating due to the devices, and interesting due to the musicians who carry out on them: Wadada Leo Smith and Nate Wooley on trumpet, Christian Fennesz on electrical guitar, Drew Gress on bass, and Kenny Wollesen on drums and vibraphone, and naturally Courvoisier on piano. Fennesz’s guitar performs a crucial function within the general sound, but it is as good as the twin trumpet entrance of Smith and Wooley, who every with their particular person sound and strategy create one thing absolutely distinctive, Smith on the market within the skies, Wooley solidly grounded in avant-garde and blues, the primary time ever these two trumpet giants carried out on file. Courvoisier provides: “I actually needed to jot down one thing particular for these wonderful musicians that I love and respect a lot. I had this band in thoughts after I composed.

Second, there are the compositions. These are extremely advanced even when light-textured, with a number of adjustments, themes disappearing and re-emerging, with generally quick structural themes that final just for a thirty seconds in a really lengthy composition, like sudden fruit on lengthy department. The music shifts between second of light shimmering to moments of dramatic energy, generally transferring steadily into each other, generally juxtaposed in harsh distinction, and even should you observe the logic after so many occasions of listening, it is nonetheless so stuffed with unpredictable points, that you simply maintain being shocked. Courvoisier provides “This music is admittedly influenced by the ambient world of Christian Fennesz and the spirit of Wadada, Nate, Drew and Kenny“. 

Third, there’s the sound, clearly the results of the primary two factors: band and compositions, however certainly conceptually there within the first place. The music is impressed by nineteenth Century French painter Odilon Redon, whose artistic endeavors are additional described beneath. Redon is understood for his transition from figurative to summary artwork, however after all primarily for weaving mysterious dream points into our acquainted world, of contrasting actuality with phantasm, and even stronger, as he described it himself: 

“I’ve usually, as an train and as a sustenance, painted earlier than an object all the way down to the smallest accidents of its visible look; however the day left me unhappy and with an unsatiated thirst. The subsequent day I let the opposite supply run, that of creativeness, by way of the recollection of the types and I used to be then reassured and appeased.”

That’s how the music sounds, like a dream from which the burdensome formal constructions have been steadily stripped or subtracted solely to go away the actual high quality of the sound intact, now not burdened in scaffolds or structural helps, providing a way of absolute freedom, fragility and and implicit sense of construction. Courvoisier provides “I had a fairly clear thought of the sound of the band after I wrote the music, however after all, they make it sound higher than what I may think about. So the top result’s just about what I had in thoughts, even whether it is growing on the rehearsal and efficiency, so I can’t wait to do extra live shows with this band, as it’ll develop much more!“

The top result’s multifacted, distinctive, distinctive, exact and punctiliously crafted. 

The title refers back to the unusual animal from Greek mythology: “The time period “chimera” has come to explain any legendary or fictional creature with components taken from varied animals, to explain something composed of disparate components or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling. In different phrases a chimera could be a hybrid creature”(Wikipedia). On the similar time, so are the sound of the music right here, as are the compositions: “composed of disparate components or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling”.

The primary observe is named “Le Pavot Rouge“, illustrated beneath. The twenty-one minute composition is presumably the one which shall be best to recollect. It begins with an excellent solo bass intro, adopted by Courvoisier’s jazzy theme on the piano, and the mid-tempo rhythm guitar dragging the listener within the piece, simply, gently, constructing as much as the gorgeous core theme on the horns. After precisely one third of the observe, the theme begins collapsing into its base elements, with out clear preparations, breaking apart the present actuality right into a bizarre dream world, the place delight and worry reside collectively, the place cognitive management leaves the way in which for inventive invention with no background however with the occasional anchor level to maintain the continuity of the piece. Fennesz’s guitar gives a darkish undertone for the bluesy piano items, the light-footed vibraphone and the hovering trumpets. It is hypnotic. It is infectious. It is charming. It is good.

Le Pavot Rouge (1890)

The second observe is named “La Joubarbe Aragnaineuse” (Sempervivum arachnoideum) additionally a plant whose title is barely and creatively altered by Courvoisier, as a result of it sounded extra enjoyable (“aragnaineuse” as an alternative of “araigneuse” (spider-like) as a result of, in line with Courvoisier “it sounds extra mysterious“). It begins with a really darkish undertone of the guitar, a gradual piece, with implicit compositions but apparent construction, extra risky and ethereal than the opening observe, once more setting darkness and lightweight in opposition to one another, or weight versus weightlessness. It flows, it progresses, it surprises, it shifts in gradual sonic colors. 

The third observe is named “Partout des prunelles flamboient”, (that means “In all places Eyeballs Are Ablaze” from The Temptation of Saint Anthony), impressed by the drawing beneath. It is a unusual composition, with sudden adjustments and brusque strikes, alternating virtually quiet moments with angular themes stuffed with excessive pleasure and quantity, presumably as if Saint Anthony has moments of burning lust and deep remorse or resignation. It is enjoyable. It is unpredictable. It is odd. 

Partout des prunelles flamboient (1888)

The subsequent pièce de résistance is “La Chimère Aux Yeux Verts” (The Chimaera with the Inexperienced Eyes), additionally from the identical portfolio on the Temptation of Saint Anthony). It begins with a powerful and stable rhythm part with piano and guitar, that dissipates into skinny air after a couple of minutes, giving Wadada Leo Smith the ground for his typical non secular sound, singing over the shy piano and guitar within the background, however then, with out warning, the quick pace picks up once more, with your complete rhythm part taking part in for simply twenty seconds when it disappears once more right into a meditative trumpet second for Smith, hovering, jubilating. It is grand. It is particular. It is ominous. 

La Chimère Aux Yeux Verts (1888)

“Annâo” is once more a gradual piece, floating someplace in imaginary dreamscapes, with fantastically light-touched piano sounds, implicitly following some internal logic that’s onerous to understand but sounds coherent and deliberate, and Nate Wooley offers some of the transferring and bluesy trumpet phrases that I’ve heard shortly. 

In sum, the entire album oscillates between stable and free types, between materials and immaterial worlds, between patterns and the sudden, between the acquainted and the imaginary, between waking and dreaming, between peace and angst. It’s a fascinating album by many measures as I discussed. The distinctive musical imaginative and prescient of Courvoisier works extremely nicely within the fingers of those grasp musicians, whose taking part in is splendidly tailored to create her dreamworld. Sensible!

Do not miss it. 

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