The New Quartet: Blue Rhizome

Blue Rhizome is a single composition divided into nine movements, each with its own title, and they reflect Siegfried's refined musical language where jazz, folklore, metal, rock and blues meet to create a singular world of sound.

The opening "Overture" begins with Carmel Raz's moaning violin and Greg Ward's elegiac saxophone recalling Albert Ayler's gospel marches, before settling into a bouncing groove.

"Destroy All Monsters," on the other hand, is an infernal heavy metal hymn showcasing the tight interplay between Siegfried and drummer Chris Avgerin. Part of the idea of this music is to embody different stages of knowledge and emotion, and "Destroy All Monsters," with its aggressive guitar work and hard rhythms, represents the anger that can grow out of apathy.

As a work, Blue Rhizome addresses major existential issues such as death ("We Will All Become Ash") and love ("Sometimes, There Is Love"). The music shifts between full-blown ensemble playing and naked soliloquies, thus reflecting the shifting conditions of human life: from life in social tribes to sole reflections on mortality.

Blue Rhizome is an ambitious effort, but its greatest success is in bringing its many threads together—thematically, as well as musically. What it all boils down to is the ancient cry of the human soul that is also heard in the blues: a cry for freedom that can't be bound. It's a freedom that is mimicked in the work of Blue Rhizome—that of breaking all musical chains while still being rooted in tradition.

Comments