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Scott Fields / Jeffrey Lependorf: Everything is in the instructions
ByBack to the present. Lependorf's collaboration with idiosyncratic guitarist and composer in avant-jazz and New Music Scott Fields does not bother itself with questions about what sound right or wrong. All sounds are beautiful, as Cage once said, and these two masterful and resourceful musicians do not attempt to replicate any form of new world music or new-agey, meditative kind of interplay (as the Shakuhachi is associated with the Zen school of Buddhism), or to follow any familiar concept.
The two musicians suggest how innovative and original music of the 21st century can sound. Music that patiently, almost methodically, explores new timbres and sonic options; uses silence as basic element; is compassionate but never sentimental, gifted with dark humor but not emotionally detached; and always demonstrating deep listening and careful sensitivity to the the most fragile qualities of the music making process and and its immediate options.
The improvised pieces "Objects in Relation to Other Objects" and "The Politics of Solitude" are masterful expressions of the high art of these two musicians. Music that is comprised from brief, abstract and subtle articulations, loosely connected, but eventually accumulate to profound, mesmerizing pieces. The intimate, chamber interplay on "Oh yes" and "Tip bloused" is simply timeless with its thoughtful references to classical, contemporary and East-Asian music. The surprising cover of John Coltrane's "Naima" is a moving tribute to the great master, performed with deep emotional gratitude but without reverence, wisely sketching this timeless classic.
Unique masterpiece.
Track Listing
She comes from nowhere; Terror babies; Objects in Relation to Other Objects; Oh, yes; The Politics of Solitude; Tip bloused; Advice for some young man in the year 2064 A.D.; Naima.
Personnel
Scott Fields: acoustic guitar; Jeffrey Lependorf: shakuhachi.
Album information
Title: Everything is in the instructions | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: Ayler Records