Sonic fiction
| Sonic fiction | ||||
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| Studio album by Matthew Shipp | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | ESP disk | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
53:55 |
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| occupation |
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Studio (s) |
Park West Studios, Brooklyn |
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Sonic Fiction is a jazz album by the Matthew Shipp Quartet with Mat Walerian , Michael Bisio and Whit Dickey . The recordings, taken on December 18, 2015 at Park West Studios, Brooklyn, were released on ESP disc in 2018 .
background
Mat Walerian had worked with Shipp on three previous albums since 2012, on the duo album The Uppercut: Live at Okuden , on Jungle: Live at Okuden (with Hamid Drake ) and shortly before on This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People , with William Parker , all for ESP disk. Walerian first recorded in a quartet with the pianist on Shipps Sonic Fiction . Shipp played with drummer Whit Dickey in the quartet of David S. Ware from the 1990s , and with Michael Bisio for the first time in a trio at a performance at The Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, New York, documented on his album Art of the Improviser (Thirsty Ear). Walerian uses an arsenal of woodwind instruments supposedly similar to Eric Dolphy's : alto saxophone , bass clarinet, and Eb clarinet.
“The Station” is a solo for clarinet; Shipps "Energy Flow" is a solo piece by Shipps. “The Problem of Jazz” contains a longer solo by bassist Michael Bisio; Another solo is “The Note,” a 17-second track consisting of a single piano note held by the pedal.
Track list
- Matthew Shipp Quartet: Sonic Fiction (ESP Disk ESP 5018)
- First Step 3:24
- Blues Addiction 6:23
- The Station 5:53
- Lines of Energy 4:02
- Easy Flow 5:39
- The Problem of Jazz 5:00
- The Note 0:17
- 3 By 4 6:25
- Cell in the Brain 5:33
- Sonic Fiction 11:23
All compositions are by Matthew Shipp.
reception
Mike Shanley wrote in JazzTimes , even if the pianist leads the session in Sonic Fiction and wrote all the tracks, he still offers the musicians involved a lot of creative space. Thom Jurek awarded the album four stars in Allmusic and wrote that the music on Sonic Fiction was created in the context of dialogical expression, "as music of ideas that are directly and intimately communicated, exchanged and brought forth." Sonic Fiction marks a new phase for Shipp , said Jurek, who developed from his earlier sessions with Walerian (and his numerous encounters with saxophonist Ivo Perelman ) into a shared, multivalent musical language in which musical equations are specified, checked and finally balanced before they become new sonic terrain showed up.
John Garratt ( Pop Matters ) noted that Sonic Fiction was "a real treat". While the solo album Zero , released at the same time, seems more intellectual, Shipp's other ESP release with his quartet is more playful and yet no less stimulating. More than 25 years after starting his music career, Shipp still plunges himself into a void in search of the impossible.
S. Victor Aaron ( Something Else! ) Says the expanded line-up allows Walerian to interact with a full rhythm section rather than just drums or bass, but not both. The tenth track "Sonic Fiction" best showed how well Walerian must have felt at home in Shipps Trio and to make it a real quartet. According to Aaron, “Sonic Fiction” is the only extended composition in which Walerian and Shipp improvise on parallel tracks. What is remarkable is "how they are able to maintain their own distinctive voices at the same time without colliding with one another." In accordance with the democratic form of the combo, in Aaron's opinion the role of each individual is of crucial importance. "The Problem of Jazz" underlines Bisio's skill on the bass, and Dickey's contribution to the overall tonality of the group sound exceeds his responsibility as a timer. In connection with the uniquely oversized personality of Mat Walerian, Shipp has found a good justification to return to a quartet.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed July 31, 2020)
- ↑ a b c John Garratt: 2018 Belongs to Matthew Shipp. Pop Matters, April 26, 2018, accessed August 1, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Review of Thom Jurek's album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved August 1, 2020.
- ↑ Matthew Shipp Quartet: Sonic Fiction at Discogs
- ↑ Mike Shanley: Matthew Shipp: Zero (ESP-Disk ') / Matthew Shipp Quartet: Sonic Fiction (ESP-Disk). JazzTimes, July 10, 2018, accessed on July 29, 2020 .
- ^ S. Victor Aaron: Matthew Shipp Quartet - Sonic Fiction (2018). Something Else !, February 26, 2018, accessed July 29, 2020 .