Craig Taborn & Ikue Mori (Tzadik, 2017) ****1/2

By Daniel Böker

The first time I came across the name Ikue Mori was with her collaboration with Sonic Youth (as was the case with many unfamiliar to me names and music, i.e. Mats Gustafsson, Merbow etc.)

A few years later, Sonic Youth was history, and I went to a concert on the roof of a museum (very nice evening!) by Body/Head, the duo of Kim Gordon and Bill Nace. On that evening they had a special guest: Ikue Mori. The strange thing about all that is that I was surprised to see that Ikue Mori was a woman. I am not very familiar with Japanese names and still it is telling a lot about me or my expectations on music and musicians. Without giving it a second thought I had expected a male artist. The music that evening was beautiful and I would say especially because of the participation of Ikue Mori.

The music we write about in this blog could be described as avantgarde (more or less). But still there are mostly male artists and my own expectations confirm that. Does Ikue Mori's gender change my perception of her music? I don't think so. Maybe it is just high time to listen to female artists in particular and highlight their approach.

Highsmith is a good example to do so. The duo of Craig Taborn on piano and Ikue Mori on electronics is exactly that - a real duo. Often electronics are an element used to add a little atmosphere or some odd sounds and little surprises, but not with this album. The two artist are, as I said before, a real duo. They are on an equal footing with each other. And that you can hear!

The piano of Craig Taborn and the sounds of Ikue Mori are a perfect match. For example the first track "The still point of the turning world": it starts of with a perfect mingling of the two as Craig Taborn plays short open chords. The piano sounds as if it was excited to meet the strange and wonderful electronic sounds that not only fill the gaps between the piano's chords but have a life of their own. I hope I don't wrong the two artists but while listening to the first track I had the image of two young dogs in my had jumping excited around each other, happy to meet each other.

The second track "music to die by" does not sound that "jumpy" at all. The piano is moving fast through the whole fingerboard accompanied by high clicking sounds. It's an urgent and grave piece of music. The other tracks are different in mood, speed and sound. There are calm tracks like "nothing that meets the eye" on which Ikue seems to lead the duo. On other tracks the piano seems to lead. But never does the one dominate the other.

It is probably not fair to compare two duos, but in preparation for this review I listened to another duo with Craig Taborn. It was Lubljana with Mats Gustafsson, and the whole approach is different: Mats Gustafsson and Craig Taborn improvise a whole set, separated in two sections. The tracks on Highsmith are improvised as well but short as pop songs with one exception. And a sax may not be compared to electronics.

Still, I listened to it and heard a different piano, and with that in mind I return to the beginning of this review. Does Ikue Mori's gender change the music? Change the way Taborn plays? Actually, I don't know for sure. I know the album sounds different, the piano on the album sounds different than the piano on Lubljana with Mats Gustafsson. But maybe I just have to reflect my expectations about who is playing what kind of music. The album Highsmith in the end is one of the best combinations of electronic sounds and more or less a 'classical' jazz piano. And Ikue Mori is an artist worth following, even to the top of a museum. She challenged my expectations, made me reflect on my thinking, and with Highsmith challenged my ears in a very exciting way.

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Piano romanticism and electronics?

There might be a new level for romanticism to be discerned, also in avant-garde music, or is it a sense of melancholy? The notes flow sparingly and almost minimal, with the electronics in contrast reinforcing or disrupting the feeling, sometimes accentuating the feeling of loneliness and sadness and despair. Whatever the semantics, this is music about emotions. 

Delphine Dora & Bruno Duplant - Inner Fields (Wild Silence, 2014) ****

Three years ago, the trio of Delphine Dora, Paulo Chagas and Bruno Duplant released the beautiful "Onion Petals As Candle Light", a fragile, accessible and open-minded album, and now the French pianist continues in the same direction in the company of Bruno Duplant, now not on bass, but on electronics and ambient sounds. Her light touch on the piano merges beautifully with the ambient sounds of playing children creating the paradoxical feeling of something very real elevated to an entirely different level of sensitivity, full of quiet acceptance and melancholy, and then on top of this, Duplant's electronics add a level of dissonant contrast, sufficiently to counterbalance the sweet sentiments, yet also without being too disruptive or unsettling.

Both artists use sound sparingly, with minimal tones creating a well-paced and beautiful atmosphere.


Joana Gama & Luis Fernandes - Quest (Shhpuma, 2014) ****½

The opening track, aptly titled 'Dream', could give the listener the impression that he or she is in for a long and meditative album of gentle romantic piano music, but then gradually the landscape changes, first with "From Mist To Nothing' creating a strange electronic minimal soundscape, punctuated by sparse piano notes, then with "Interlude", a short track full of distant vibrating shadows of a player piano.

The distant, and almost deep vision into a century old nightmare, continues on "Let Bygones Be Bygones", an eery piece that might well be used as an alternative to the soundtrack of the bar scene of the movie The Shining. "Night Drive" starts full of quiet romantic expectations, but then it evolves into a psychedelic ride of repetitive electronics, drone and carefully positioned piano chords, going into deeper darkness with 'Quest", when you've left all genres and dive into an electronic maelstrom, only to re-emerge in a strange universe of "Sparks & Crackles", on which chime-like piano sounds collide with weird electronics.

Before it ends, the journey goes over the first meditative then eery "This Frozen Sea", on which the fluid piano notes have been hardened and coldened into layers of nightmarish terror, and "Twisted Movements" surprises you again with its quirky nature, its shifting atmospheres and unexpected finale.

Clearly, this is beyond jazz, beyond rock or classical music, yet merging all of it into something new. Despite this variety, the album has an incredible coherence, and takes the listener to unexpected places.


Joana Sá & Luís José Martins - Almost A Song (Shhpuma, 2013) ****½

The album starts very quietly with Joana Sá's piano opening sonic space by creating a repetitive phrase that remains open-ended like a great invitation for Martins to join first with muted arpeggios on his nylon string guitar, and despite the calm build-up, the emphasis shifts constantly, moving the sounds to the distance, then with some punctuated chords reaffirming their presence like the flux of a river, to become even completely quiet in the second part of the long first track, only for the odd-metered theme to re-emerge with increasing percussive power and even electronic drama. A strange opening song, drawing the listener from romanticism to sentiments of utter desolation. "Cantiga de Amor", you bet.

The intensity increases with the high speed second track, one that is somewhat reminiscent of Egberto Gismonti's music, with powerplay on guitar and piano, inventive, virtuoso and disconcerting because of the dissonance and the drama and the madness. "Rock em Setembro": no prisoners taken. Then the central piece "Cantiga, partindo-se" brings you in a totally different world, with chimelike piano playing creating an eery atmosphere, ominous and dark, even if the playing itself remains light of touch but then the sound becomes multilayered in symphonic mayhem, making the duo sound like an orchestra for a phenomenal finale.

"Die Wahnsinnige Forelle" (the crazy trout), brings us very extended piano sounds clashing and merging with fast-paced guitar arpeggios, into strange chime, bells and other spielerei. breaking down in maddening dissonance and distant whistling.

The album ends with "Sarabande", a quiet piece with sparse notes coloring a vast expanse of silence, sometimes meditatively, sometimes more agitated, yet always intense.

This album was on my "to review" list for 2013, and it was one of the many albums that I regretted not having reviewed earlier (trust me, there are more albums in that case). Don't miss it.


So in sum, yes romantic at times, maybe, meditative, certainly, but the main thing that the three albums share are their strong coherence, the inventiveness of the playing, and especially the strong character of the music. Nothing is cheap here. Their is vision and a powerful use of all musical genres these artists have under their belt, only to make so much richer and rewarding music.

Enjoy!

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