Sunday, November 24, 2013

Exploding Star Orchestra - Matter Anti-Matter (RogueArt, 2013) ****


By Stef

In particle physicsantimatter is material composed of antiparticles, which have the same mass as particles of ordinary matter but have opposite charge and other particle properties such as lepton and baryon number. Encounters between particles and antiparticles lead to the annihilation of both, giving rise to varying proportions of high-energy photons (gamma rays), neutrinos, and lower-mass particle–antiparticle pairs. Setting aside the mass of any product neutrinos, which represent released energy which generally continues to be unavailable, the end result of annihilation is a release of energy available to do work, proportional to the total matter and antimatter mass, in accord with the mass-energy equivalence equation, E=mc2., according to my friend Wikipedia

The first disc is called Matter, and with reason, because what we hear has the density, the power, the themes and the drive of other Exploding Star Orchestra recordings, although this is one is clearly not on the number one spot. That being said, the music is still phenomenal in its concept, raw and intense in its delivery, with a band of today's most acclaimed musicians, playing Mazurek's expansive and grand compositions, compelling and sweeping in their drive, boundless as the universe itself, and overwhelming and crushing because of its voluminous density. Of all the larger bands to be heard, this one definitely figures in the top five. 

The band is : Rob Mazurek cornet, electronics, Roscoe Mitchell: alto & soprano saxophones, Nicole Mitchell: flutes & voice, Matana Roberts: alto saxophone, Matt Bauder: tenor saxophone, Steve Swell: trombone, Jason Adasiewicz: vibraphone & tubular bells, Kevin Dumm: electronics, Matthew Lux: bass guitar, Mauricio Takara: cavaquino & percussions, Guilherme Granado: samplers & marimba, John Herndon: drums, Mike Reed: drums, Chad Taylor: drums, Damom Locks: voice

The second disc is called Anti-Matter, and offers a totally different perspective. We only hear Mazurek on electronics, not exactly my field of preference, interest or knowledge. The sounds are eery, distant, like you would expect these nasty antiparticles to do, annihilating matter with their opposite charge, giving birth to high energy, possibly present but clearly inaudible, yet these antiparticles are more than just white noise, doing their work in the layers upon layers upon layers of what, shifting and shimmering in the shrieking shadows of darkness.


Available at instantjazz.com.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please note that comments on posts do not appear immediately - unfortunately we must filter for spam and other idiocy.