PARALLAX (Edition/Planet) 9/10 As the album’s title suggests Phronesis changes the perception of jazz by viewing it from a different angle. Part of the Anglo-Danish band’s secret has been solving the problem of sonic transparency when piano (Ivo Neame), bass (Jasper Hoiby) and drums (Anton Eger) are played together, whether…
Category: Album Reviews – Archive
FLUID TO THE INFLUENCE (Room40) 8/10 Chris Abrahams’ new solo opus not only offers more of his darkly brooding sound worlds, it contains the sonic equivalent of a horror movie. On One-Liter Cold Laptop sounds spear at you with such venom as might be the soundtrack to the apocalypse, or…
BIRDWATCHING (ECM) 8.5/10 Anat Fort calls the longest piece here Not the Perfect Storm. She could have left off the “not” because, beginning with Roland Schneider’s ominous tom-tom rolls, it is a perfect marriage of visceral drama and a profound, almost ancient-sounding sadness. While Fort’s piano, Schneider’s drums and Gary…