BlankFor.ms - Jason Moran - Marcus Gilmore: Refract [Vinyl 2LP]

Ambient / Contemporary Jazz / Experimental
premiera polska: 2024-09-12
opakowanie: Gatefoldowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com
W fascynującym świecie muzyki, gdzie technologia splata się z tradycją, takie nagrania, jak "Refract" są niczym drogowskazy orientujące naszą uwagę na nowe artystyczne lądy.
To właśnie świat cyfrowy spotyka się z analogowym na "Refract" - niezwykłym albumie stworzonym przez BlankFor.ms - muzyka elektronicznego i specjalisty od pętli taśmowych, doskonale znanego jazzowego pianistę Jasona Morana i innowacyjnego perkusistę Marcusa Gilmore'a.
"Refract" to nieskrępowany cud dźwięku, który łączy elektronikę, fortepian i perkusję w czasie rzeczywistym. Dzięki spontanicznemu nagrywaniu pętli chwytanych w locie i ponownemu nasycaniu przestrzeni dźwiękowych zaskakującymi efektami obcujemy z prawdziwie nową, eksperymentalną formą, ciążącą jednak ku językowi jazzu, szczególnie w komponencie zespołowej interakcyjności. Artystyczny efekt to nieoczywiste dźwięki i witalna energia rzadko wcześniej słyszane.

Tyler Gilmore, znany również, jako BlankFor.ms, jest wysoko cenionym i wyjątkowym artystą znanym z bogatej, wielowątkowej, emocjonalnej muzyki tworzonej na bazie jego rzadkiej kolekcji poddanej działaniu czasu taśm, analogowych syntezatorów i starego szpinetu. W pewnym sensie całe jego dotychczasowe życie artystyczne prowadziło do tego momentu. "Podczas pracy nad tym albumem przeżyłem kilka muzycznych żyć" – powiedział Tyler. Rozpoczął karierę, jako jazzowy kompozytor w dużym zespole. Uczęszczając do New England Conservatory trafił pod skrzydła uczącego tam Jasona Morana, jednocześnie rozwijał swoje zainteresowanie muzyką elektroniczną. Tyler Gilmore potrafi w sposób harmonijny łączyć zdobyte umiejętności i pasję tworzenia nowej muzyki z zaawansowaną technologią, jak niewielu przed nim.
"Jestem zakochany w muzyce elektronicznej i od lat starałem się naśladować tekstury elektroniczne w swoich orkiestracjach. Ostatecznie postanowiłem po prostu sięgnąć po źródłowe narzędzia, jakimi są urządzenia elektroniczne. Najpierw improwizowałem z ludźmi, używając opartych na DAW opóźnień, harmonizatorów, pogłosów i sprzężeń zwrotnych. Ale tak naprawdę odkrycie kasety magnetofonowej, jako kreatywnego medium pobudziło moje elektroniczne kreacje do czegoś więcej". Ta analogowa estetyka elektroniczna zainteresowała producenta Sun Chunga, który po zapoznaniu się z twórczością Tylera zaproponował pracę nad albumem, na którym Tyler Gilmore wystąpił z dwoma jazzowymi improwizatorami.

"Jason myśli w sposób bardzo nowoczesny, przy jednoczesnym głębokim szacunku dla przeszłości" – mówi o Jasonie Moranie Charles Lloyd, który przed kilkoma laty zaprosił pianistę do swego kwartetu. "Kocha muzykę we wszystkich jej obliczach i we wszystkim, co ją otacza. Ma wrażliwość bardzo cichą i bardzo głęboką" - to znów Lloyd.
"Moran przeczy opiniom, że jeśli chodzi o fortepian i jazz, nie ma już nic nowego do odkrycia", twierdzi magazyn Boston Globe, a New Yorker okrzyknął go "nowym mistrzem".
Zadebiutował w 1999 r. albumem "Soundtrack to Human Motion" (Blue Note Records). Bez wątpienia jest twórcą wszechstronnym i na wskroś współczesnym. Zafascynowany dorobkiem Theloniousa Monka, ale także hip-hopem i sztuką współczesną, zyskał sławę nie tylko dzięki świetnym albumom, ale także zaangażowaniu w muzykę filmową i współpracę z artystami sztuk wizualnych (m.in. Karą Walker czy Glennem Ligonem). Rezultaty tej współpracy znajdują się w kolekcji m.in. Museum Of Modern Art w Nowym Jorku.

Urodzony w 1986 roku Marcus Gilmore to wielokrotny laureat Grammy Award. Ten perkusista, kompozytor i producent to dzisiaj niezwykle rozchwytywany muzyk. Jest członkiem zespołu Vijaya Iyera, z którym nagrał pięć płyt, Steve'a Colemana, Gilada Hekselmana, Ambrose'a Akinmusire'a. Współpracował z Mulatu Astatke, Chickiem Corea, Pharoahem Sandersem, Patem Metheny'm, Common, Flying Lotus, Robertem Glasperem, Natalie Cole, Bradem Mehldau'em, Cassandrą Wilson, Gonzalo Rubalcabą, Nicholasem Paytonem, Jill Scott, Queen Latifah, Norah Jones, Black Thought, Zakirem Hussainem, The Cadillacs, Terrencem Blanchardem, Roy'em Hargrove.
Na zamówienie American Composers Orchestra, napisał swój pierwszy utwór orkiestrowy, którym zadebiutował w 2020 roku z członkami Cape Town Philharmonic.
W czerwcu 2023 roku w Nowym Jorku grana przez American Composers Orchestra kompozycja Marcusa Gilmore'a miała swoją koncertową premierę.
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Editor's info
Digital meets analogue on 'Refract' - the remarkable new trio album by electronic musician and tape loop specialist BlankFor.ms, MacArthur fellow pianist Jason Moran and innovative drummer Marcus Gilmore. Refract is an uninhibited sonic marvel that combines electronics, piano and drums in real time. By spontaneously recording loops grabbed on the fly and re-infusing the sonic planes with various effects, the results borne on Refract are sounds and energies rarely heard before.
Tyler Gilmore, aka BlankFor.ms, is a highly respected and unique artist known for richly textured, emotive music created from his rare collection of degraded tapes, analog synthesizers and an old spinet piano. In a way, his whole artistic life - thus far - has led up to this moment. “I’ve lived a few musical lives at this point,” reflects Tyler. He began his career as a large ensemble jazz composer, attending New England Conversatory and studying with Moran, while concurrently fostering an interest in electronic music. “I had always loved electronic music and found myself trying to mimic electric textures in orchestrations. Eventually I decided to simply go to the source and work with electronic tools, first improvising with people using DAW-based delays, harmonizers, reverbs, and feedback. But it was really the discovery of cassette tape as a creative medium that spurred my electronic creations into something more.” This analog electric aesthetic captivated the interest of producer Sun Chung, who upon hearing Tyler’s work, proposed the idea of an album pairing him with improvisers - an idea Tyler called both “thrilling” and “terrifying”.
From the onset, Jason Moran seemed to be the most natural fit. “In the time I’ve spent with Jason, first as a student and then arranging and orchestrating for a few of his projects, I was always in awe of his receptiveness to the present moment… he has an almost aggressive ability to listen and take everything in, and a faith that were was more to find if he were to listen even further,” says Tyler. “The idea of combining my electronic vocabulary with [Jason’s] playing was terribly inspiring. I had no idea, literally no idea, how he would play when confronted with tape loops, or feedback resonances, or harmonized and twisted loops of what he’s just played.” With Marcus Gilmore, it was even more mysterious. Tyler and Sun agreed that a percussive presence was necessary for the album to work and again, Marcus was the ideal candidate.
Sun and Tyler went through a significant pre-production period before recording. Tyler prepped a few different pathways for the trio and tried to remain unattached to whichever branch might bear the most fruit. He prepared composed pieces (with melodies and chords), musical sketches with lots of runway, and various tape loops that could serve as a jumpoff point for improvisation. “Each composition served as a starting point,” Jason Moran reflects. “Tyler’s ability to mine the song as it was being made created another dimension. It felt more like part of our music reality was being refracted back to us. In that way, intentionality was especially important, because any moment could come flooding back exponentially bigger.” Refract marks the first time Jason has ever worked with an electronic musician and fulfills a long-held desire for the Grammy nominated artist. “I have always longed for an outside force to manipulate my piano song and drag the sound into a cistern filled with soft clay.”
Album highlights “Affectionate, Painful” and “Inward, Curve” came from more composed ideas, while the album opener “Onset I”, “Onset II” and “Stir” were the result of an open-ended framework. On the various tape loop improvisations, the trio really takes flight. Tyler left all of his prepared tape loops unlabeled so that they wouldn’t know which was which when they began. “The improvisations resulting from this process were some of the best moments of the session,” says Tyler. “Jason and Marcus were sublime in their ability to instantly compose in, out, and around the loops. I was improvising using effects pedals, modular devices, and tape machines, and I had a feed of the piano and drums flowing into my effects. I was creating textures, gestures, motifs out of what they played. I often found myself trying to grab the interesting moments and silently hold them (bent, reversed, granulated, delayed) waiting and listening for a natural pivot moment to reintroduce them.”
Spontaneity was a major tenant of the session and instilled in every take. In fact, the mystery of “what would come out” was the driving creative force behind the entire project. “One of the aspects I love about this album is how interactive all the sonic elements are,” Sun Chung says. “A lot of it was recorded in real time, so there is a real sense of immediacy in the music’s energy that one can sense while listening.” Paired with some more of the through composed tracks, this 16-track program is an incredibly balanced and dynamic work.

“When Tyler was a student of mine at New England Conservatory, we would listen to a lot of electronic music and I recall asking how he would transpose these ideas to analog instruments,” Jason Moran reflects. “In this way, this is his answer.”

"They move from rumination to chaos and back with grace and an air of mystery."
Tidal - Larry Blumenfeld

"It is an impressive team for a first foray."
The New York Times - Giovanni Russonello

"The electronica is on point and Moran is in imperious form. A thrilling mix of improvised electronica and contemporary modern jazz."
Financial Times - Mike Hobart

"This three-way studio collaboration between pianist Jason Moran, electronic musician Blankfor.ms, and drummer Marcus Gilmore is a fascinating experiment… Blankfor.ms is always at work disrupting and sidetracking the music, letting shimmering waves of electronic tone waft through."
Stereogum - Phil Freeman

"A fuzzy, warm world, as if seen through frosted eyes, the analogue pulling delaying, microsecond intervals of decomposition away from digital decay, the drums (of Marcus Gilmore) coated with particle layers as if once trapped in sandstorm, duststorm, firestorm."
David Toop

"The electronics are like deep exhalations spreading out over solidly icy piano chords to attain the grandeur of a classical composer making do without horns or strings."
Jazzwise - Kevin Le Gendre

"Un moment de grâce solaire et envoûtant."
Jazz Magazine

"If you are looking for music that is fresh, and jazz that is breaking through walls that once defined it, this is an album that will cause the senses to tickle, the mind to reflect, and the universe to open widely like a smile across your sky and lift you into passages and places never before explored."
Musical Memoirs - Dee Dee McNeil

"Einer der interessantesten Platten des Jahres macht. Dieses ungleiche Trio bildet eine Sound-Avantgarde, deren hypnotischem Sog man sich nur schwer entziehen kann."
Da Capo

"At this point, it's self-evident how well these two genres mesh. And pianist Jason Moran and drummer Marcus Gilmore offer another fascinating twist: tape loops. — partnered with the tape loop visionary Tyler Gilmore, a.k.a. BlankFor.ms."
Recording Academy / Grammys - Morgan Enos

"Throughout, the variety of sounds – digital and analogue – is inspiring, the combination of electronics, piano and drums in real time hugely impressive. For this is a set that constantly surprises in its sheer inventiveness and excels in its delivery."
Jazz Journal - Simon Adams

"Refract's largely improvised fabric makes for one of the year's most adventurous and intriguing listens."
All About Jazz - Pat Youngspiel

"…one of the most unique recordings that you have ever
heard. The musicianship is guaranteed with Jason Moran and Marcus Gilmore involved, but it is everyone’s sense of exploration that makes this a distinctive recording. It isn’t jazz or rock, it’s not hip-hop or electronica, and it’s not classical, so what is it? A mind-bending exploration and experimentation of sound."
Modern Drummer

"…tumble into spiralling disorder then subside into hushed serenity."
Electronic Sound

"It’s modern, and excellent, but is it “jazz”? It will be when jazz catches up to it."
New York City Jazz Record - George Grella

"As inviting as the projection of water you know is there, flowing and never stopping, so is the music you will hear; they sway with a rare delicacy. If you are ready for a true cross-genre journey, check it out."
Dark Blue Notes

muzycy:
BlankFor.ms: electronics, tape loops, processing
Jason Moran: piano
Marcus Gilmore: drums

utwory:
A1. Onset I
A2. Onset II
A3. Tape Loop A
A4. Affectionate, Painful
B5. Inward, Curve
B6. Tape Loop B I
B7. Tape Loop B II
B8. Tape Loop B III
C9. Eight Pose
C10. Stir
C11. Release
C12. Little Known
D13. Tape Loop C I
D14. Tape Loop C II
D15. Tape Loop C III
D16. Tape Loop D

wydano: 2023-09-01
nagrano: Recorded on May 26-27, 2022, at The Bridge Studio, Brooklyn NY

more info: www.redhookrecords.com