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Stones of Contention

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Label: citystream
Released: 2014
Views: 792

Personnel

Noel Taylor

clarinet

Ricardo Tejero

saxophone, alto

Tomasso Vespo

piano

Nichola Hein

guitar, electric

Antonio Longo

drums

Antonio Aiello

bass, acoustic

Album Description

The Sicilian pianist, Tommaso Vespo, assembled the six musicians that play on 'Stones of Contention'. He invited Spanish, English and German colleagues that he knew from the Berlin Improvisers Orchestra to come to Sicily and join up with himself and two local musicians. Ricardo Tejero from Madrid plays saxophone, Noel Taylor from London is on clarinet, Nicola Hein from Köln plays guitar, with, from Sicily, Antonio Aiello on bass, Tommaso Vespo on piano and Antonio Longo on drums. 'Stones of Contention' is the evocative title that Vespo entitled the result. The meaning is elusive. Does it refer to some ancient ritual, or to an archaic and long-forgotten conflict? Perhaps the 'stones' have some sort of mystic power or are they mere tokens of power, to be shuffled like dice? Above all - we would wish to know are they the subject or object of 'contention'? But we will never know the answer to this, because Tommaso Vespo himself does not know. 'Stones make sounds' is his cryptic explanation. What we can say is that this is music that seems to seethe with unresolved undercurrents, as if some clandestine dispute is secretly encoded in sound. There is a sense of restlessness, of disruption, of things being tossed aside, of a discourse full of exclamations, shouts and whispers. There is an irascible quality that seems to persist throughout, like a nagging thought at the margins of a dream that never entirely resolves. Yet towards the end we hear a great clamour arising, a thunderous chorus of wild voices - on piano, drums, clarinet, saxophone, guitar and drums - all acclaiming, all contending, all shouting to an un-hearing heaven that this is their sound, this is their music, that these are the Stones of Contention.

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Album uploaded by Noel Taylor