Evan Parker: Crepuscule In Nickelsdorf 

Excise the notion of virtual reality and AI as the force behind the music heard on Crepuscule In Nickelsdorf by Evan Parker and Matthew Wright's Trance Map+. Undoubtedly you might be tempted to have this thought by surveying the instrumentation, which is chock-full of sampling and electronics. Let's reserve those thoughts for a listen to this live recording from July, 2017 in the city of Nickelsdorf, Austria.

Parker and Wright collaborated on the original Trance Map (psi, 2011) which was primarily a post-production affair, with Wright assembling samples of Parker's horn together with field recordings, bird songs and insects. Here the pair perform live with Trance Map augmented with bass plus electronics from Adam Linson, electronics by John Coxon and Ashley Wales of Spring Heel Jack (who Parker collaborated to make With Birds (Treader, 2004). Parker's soprano saxophone circular breathing has always summoned a comparison to birds in the wild. Add to that samples of the same, plus insects and the experience of forest bathing in sound and you begin to acknowledge the molecular improvisation scheme that Parker has been developing for decades. The seeds of this concert can be heard on the rare outing with Keith Rowe Dark Rags (Potlatch, 2000) .

The sound is assuredly organic with a carbon base as opposed to a silicon foundation. The chirps and chitter can be either field recorded samples or electronically produced. The distinctions between real and artificial are meaningless with this ensemble. The sounds bloom and the artificial feels real and the real becomes ersatz. Here, the birds and the bees thrive as in a Philip K. Dick novel. You may be tempted to forget each of these sounds are the intentional actions of improvisors performing at the highest level and all of it is quite majestic.

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