NOCTURNE (facebook.com/Oblivion-Tango-Duo) 8/10 Do dynamics shape any other musical idiom to the extent that they do tango? It’s this ability to swell a melodic line to just the right crescendo, then drop it back to precisely the right softness, that lends tango its almost exaggerated sense of drama. But if…
Category: Album Reviews
TRANSIENTS VOLUME 1 (AK) 9/10 You can hear pianist Andrea Keller scraping the irrelevances from her art like unwanted skin. Always a fine composer, she has honed and polished these pieces with a crystal clarity about each sound-world and the direction the improvising should take. Musings is a robust framework…
CLASSIC CABARET RARITIES (Rouseabout) 7.5/10 Had his music not done the job, Astride Bruant’s immortality was assured by Toulouse-Lautrec’s posters famously depicting the singer-songwriter in black hat and scarlet scarf. A third of this album focuses on Paris circa 1880-1900, featuring Bruant’s scowling view of a corrupted world. Robyn Archer’s…