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Friday, January 9, 2009

Wacław Zimpel & Tim Daisy - Four Walls (Multikulti, 2008) ****

A month ago I praised Polish clarinettist Wacław Zimpel for his playing on "The Light". Now he teams up with Tim Daisy on drums, whose quartet release "1,000 Lights" I reviewed only yesterday. Seems like these guys have found each other under the right luminiscence, for this duo outing, which is expanded by Dave Rempis on alto and tenor saxophones, and by Mark Tokar on bass on two of the seven tracks on this album. Both Daisy and Rempis are members of the Vandermark 5, yet here there music is more abstract, more free, moving in the direction of what I heard of Zimpel and Tokar before. There is rhythm for sure, there is melodic tension, but very implicit, painted in broad strokes, leaving lots of opportunities to change, alter, accentuate, dialogue, and crackling with anticipation and subtle touches. And if Zimpel and Daisy manage to create wonderful interaction on the five duets, Rempis and Tokar add a dimension to the music, with "Chorale" as the highlight. If you listen to the album in one go, it moves from the light-footed and intense duets into two more dramatic, darker quartet pieces, even if one is called "Basement Of Joy", ending more light-footed again with the last duet, which is a second take at the opening track.

The record comes with the enigmatic message that the music was recorded live at the Alchemia Club in Krakow, but without public participation. The meaning of "live" has apparently been altered without notifying us.

Buy from Instantjazz.

© stef

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